Shock. Arriving in Angola inevitably distresses my soul. Though I lived here for two year and have return annually for fourteen more, reentry into this place of paucity continues to unmask any temptation towards complacency over the world’s affairs. Were I a normal Angolan, one of my own children would have died before reaching first grade and I myself would have passed years ago.
It’s good this I feel this way. Distress over unjust suffering indicates to me that the temporal pleasures of life have not quite entirely seduced my heart, as the God of Isaiah continues to counsel me to “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (1:17). This counsel is universal, advocating care for human life throughout world – in Anaheim, Angola, and Armenia. This counsel is also compelling, even to the degree that its execution is at times shocking to my soul.