bad news

Yesterday my friend's house got demolished – totally without notice. They wouldn't give her any time to get her things out of her house. Her landlord decided to build another floor on the house and didn't go through the proper channels…so somehow the house ended up being demolished – Immediately. Its so bazaar, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that reality for my friend and her family. It just doesn't seem real.

I know stuff like this happens all the time. People lose their homes. Injustice happens. Natural disasters strike. This stuff happens on a much bigger scale that this and effects a whole lot more people all the time. I get it. In the grand scheme of things this isn't really that big of a problem…but it is. I mean, this is my friend…and in some ways I just don't know what to feel – or how to respond.

This reminds me of a quote that I only remember the idea of that my friend Beth read me last year – how we will never have compassion for the masses in need until we truly identify with them. Its easy to ignore thousands of people who have lost their homes…but when your family member loses a home – your heart breaks. Tragedies happen…and they can be paralyzing – but when we being to view all of humanity as our brothers and sisters – then we're moved to action. And how God's desire for us is that we would have compassion for the masses like we have for our families and friends.

I don't know why I'm sharing this. I don't have any conclusions. No lessons learned. I guess its just that my friend had her house torn down yesterday. And it makes me angry. Angry that something like that can just happen. And maybe i just need to be able to say that I'm angry. Yes, angry. And it makes me feel powerless – how do I really help here?! what do you do when your friend's house just gets torn down? It makes me ask questions. And I don't know what to do with this….