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The Haiti earthquake of Jan. 12, may very well be the single worst disaster that I can remember in recent memory.  Not only are  over 110,000 dead, but the UN has estimated over 600,000 have been left homeless and both numbers could and probably will rise.  This is epic not because of the numbers – which are comparable to the 2004 tsunami in Thailand/Indonesia, but because of the percentage of the population that this disaster has affected.  In 2004, the tsunami only affected those along the coast.  This hasn’t just weakened Haiti — it’s decimated the country.  Had the earthquake been even a little higher, it’s very possible there wouldn’t even be a Haiti.  Haiti before the earthquake was the western hemisphere’s poorest country, with most people living on less than $1 per day.

Over the past 11 days as I’ve watched the news — and CNN should win some kind of award for disaster coverage because they have far and away out-covered all of the other networks . . . combined.   But as I have watched, I have asked myself the questions that must be going through every Haitian’s mind — how do I start my life over with nothing?  How do I live without family members who were killed?  How will our country ever recover?

Then I think about how much we as Americans complain about the smallest inconveniences in our lives.  I remember getting angry just this past Tuesday when my car got a flat tire or how I’ve been fighting a cold.  I’m sure you can think of things too that are insignificant to the questions the average Haitian is asking themselves today.

And while many of us will give money or later on volunteer for relief work there in rebuilding Haiti, I believe we need to do much more than that.  We need to get over ourselves and our inward focus.  It’s not about us or about making ourselves feel good for helping needy people.   The earthquake in Haiti is a reminder of how blessed we are in this country and how posh our lives are.  It doesn’t matter the problems we are facing — we all have a place to lay our heads down, people that love us and food to eat.  That is something not all Haitians today have.  I’m sure there are children who lost both parents, siblings and are now orphaned.  Compared to Haiti, America is a fattened cow and probably just as ignorant as one too towards the world around us.   People in Washington keep searching for answers on how to turn this down economy around. Well here’s a suggestion – we need to get back to being a more simplistic society, with a family-centered focus one that pays attention to our kids schooling, that makes more time to spend with friends, with God and one where political allegiance isn’t like religion but just an opinion.  If we do that, we may not end up as the richest nation, but we’ll be a much happier and content one.  We are drowning ourselves in discontentment and tricking ourselves into thinking there must be something more to be had.  And there is, but not in the latest iPod or cell phone or flat screen TV or video game or exotic vacation — it’s in Jesus, in the God who is the only quench to our thirst.   When are we going to drink it up America?