Throughout the book, Claiborne suggests many options in which we can (ultimately) change the world. In a sense, he is one of the mordern day prophets of God, silently speaking and showing us the way of God. He doesn't do this by preaching per se, but by his actions and revelations that we could somehow relate to in a sense.
His want of meeting Mother Teresa and living in India has most definitely earned him some kudos from me, but what gets to me is that he doesn't go on mission trips to help make himself a better person, but to help others see another view of things. When he wrote about his experience in Iraq, it definitely shed another meaning to this on-going war. To me, this war has been/is so dragged out, that I rarely think about it- the fact that everyday, someone is hurt. Claiborne describes one time when he was attending a birthday party, and then bombs were going off not too far from them, yet the attendees of the party still remain. Those people are so used to that harsh lifestyle that it is still incomprehensible to me. It is injust that bombs are going off, hurting innocent people, and the fact is, we're involved in it.
Claiborne brings out ideas and views that we don't usually think about, like walking in another person's shoes to see how they live, or living to the extreme, as if this day were our last. What would we regret?
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Claibourne truly shared a great sum o hisf wisdom with us for sure. You mentioned that Shane "brings out ideas and views that we don't usually think about" and I agree completely. I feel that he purposely tried (and succeeded) in pulling all of us out of our comfort zones so to help us see the world in a different, probably more accurate light. At the least, he wanted us to get off the self-centered "cruise control" that we all seem to slip into more times than we'd wish.
ReplyDeleteI too am sadly "used" to the war in Iraq. It has been drawn out for so long that its ridiculous. Its sad to think that families in Iraq are "used" to the war in Iraq as well. Its easy to forget to think about the lives of the oppressed and that is one thing Claibourne has opened my eyes to through his stories.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree to what you wrote about Claiborne's book. It is terrible how we have become so "accustomed" to this war that we forget that there are people over there who must deal with the bombings and deaths of so many they cared about. It's true that we never think about how things might affect the other person.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to me when you said that "he doesn't go on missions to help make himself a better person...", because I know that that is a lot of people's main motivation for serving. The first and main goal should be to help others, and if doing that with your whole heart the becoming a better person thing may follow. Like you said, Shane does a great job of opening our eyes and helping us to see there are big (and small) issues out there, and we need to not let them slip from our daily thoughts and prayers.
ReplyDeleteI really liked what he had to say about the war. Anytime the war is brought up on the news, and they talk about casualties, we don't think who those casualties were. We don't think of them as real people, as people that have nothing to do with the military or terrorism. Children are dying, innocent people are dying, and that's something that people need to be aware of.
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