Nou Bouke

"Nou Bouke" I saw this spray painted on the walls of several buildings yesterday as we were riding the bus home. In Kreyol it means "We are tired." I can't help but think, of what?

These past few days, I've been reading a lot in Isaiah and the Psalms. In both, God often appears as a God of wrath, bringing Justice to the earth. A lot of those images make me feel uncomfortable. I want God to be a God a peace, love and reconciliation. I cringe away from passages where God is 'riding on a swift cloud' of judgment (Isaiah 19:1).

Yet, as I sit on the buses and tap-taps of urban Haiti, I am confronted with the poor and the oppressed. Roadside vendors who eke out a daily living on less than two dollars a day. Street children with no education and no home. Slums built practically one on top of the other, and rubbish strewn through the streets. I can't help but think that a God of justice is not a God from whom these people would cringe.

Instead, this would be good news! David promises us in the psalms, "A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity...better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of the wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous" (Psalm 37:10-11, 16-17).

This passage begs the question: who are the wicked? Micah 6:8 tells us, "What does the Lord require of you? To seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before your God." God asks that we use our resources, talents, and time to pursue His justice and mercy. In Haiti, 80% of the country lives on less than two dollars a day. Perhaps the message I saw spray painted on so many walls was written to the other twenty percent, and to people like myself, a middle class American citizen.

Nou bouke. We are tired. As David so eloquently wrote, "Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord hear my voice." (Psalm 130:1). Can I shake myself out of my comfortable middle class status to hear this cry? How would God have me use my time, my talents and my resources while I am here--and not only here--but everywhere in the world where there are poor and oppressed who call for Justice. Mwen bouke. I am tired: tired of living comfortably. I choose to serve an uncomfortable God, who not only loves and forgives, but who tears down and destroys so that Justice might come to the earth. ---Anna Hunt