When U2 frontman Bono spoke to Harvard’s graduating class last summer, he urged graduates to help end Third World debt and fight the AIDS crisis in Africa. “It’s hard to make this a popular cause,” he said. “It’s hard to make it pop, you know? And I guess that’s what my job is, ’cause pop is often — sadly often — the oxygen of politics.” I respect Bono because he takes on the hard causes. He sticks up for the people that have no voice. He tackles causes that no one else is championing.
But it’s not because he’s better person than the rest of us; it’s simply because he’s chosen to take a stand. “I’m rebelling against my own indifference,” he said. If left to our own nature, we’d all simply live our quiet lives and not rock the boat. But Bono, seeing horrible things in the world, has chosen to speak up. He’s gotten past his own complacency and has decided to make a difference. It’s time we do the same.
Did you know legislation is being pushed through Washington right now that could end up erasing the right for Christians to say — even quoting the Bible — that homosexuality is a sin? Did you know that missionaries and Christians around the world are regularly being tortured and killed for their faith? And everyone is just looking the other way. It’s time we wake up. We’re sitting back, complacent as can be, happy just being Christians and knowing that everything in our own little worlds is fine. The time is over for status quo to be okay.
If Christ were here today, do you think He would be planning the choir selection for Sunday service or out in the streets, touching lives and making a difference? If we don’t put our faith to action, what good is it? When you see injustice in your city, do you do anything about it? When you hear about floods wiping out a town in Texas, do you donate to the Red Cross? When you read about something in Washington that infuriates you, do you pick up the phone and call your congressman? You should — it’s been proven that 12 calls will change a representative’s vote.
You may say you don’t give a flying flip about those things, which is exactly the point. I don’t either — and maybe that’s why things are getting worse. I say it’s time our generation collectively raises its voice, holds up a standard of right and wrong, and says enough is enough. We are a sleeping giant, and the entire course of the world could be changed if we simply decided to take action. We need to care like Christ cares. We need to take up His causes. We need to touch lives. We need to spread love and righteousness, not simply by words, but by action. It takes getting past ourselves and seeing our world from a larger perspective. It takes being aware. It takes hearing God. It takes rebelling against our own indifference.
