![\"Ten](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/credit-endignorance.org_.jpg\")
<\/a>Ten years after a tsuna\u00admi rav\u00adaged vil\u00adlages like this that line the Indi\u00adan Ocean coast\u00adline, towns have been rebuilt, lives repaired. [Cred\u00adit: endignorance.org]<\/p><\/div>A decade has passed since a tsuna\u00admi dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00aded vil\u00adlages in 13 Asian coun\u00adtries, which remind\u00aded me that some\u00adwhere I have a plas\u00adtic sand\u00adwich bag filled with rupees.\n
The rupees are among the memen\u00adtoes of a woman I cher\u00adished. She went to Kudanku\u00adlam<\/a>,<\/span> a fish\u00ading vil\u00adlage on the south\u00adern tip of the Indi\u00adan sub\u00adcon\u00adti\u00adnent, ten years ago to pro\u00advide med\u00adical care to the tsunami\u2019s survivors.<\/p>\n The cat\u00ada\u00adclysm was trig\u00adgered short\u00adly before 8 o\u2019clock on the morn\u00ading of Decem\u00adber 26, 2004. A tremor<\/a> 12 miles beneath the earth\u2019s sur\u00adface and hun\u00addreds of miles from that small Indi\u00adan vil\u00adlage struck with the force of 23,000 Hiroshi\u00adma bombs. With\u00adin hours, mas\u00adsive waves had engulfed Kudanku\u00adlam, killing scores of vil\u00adlagers and leav\u00ading many oth\u00aders homeless.<\/p>\n India\u2019s share of the tsunami\u2019s casu\u00adal\u00adties<\/a> was small in rel\u00ada\u00adtive terms \u2013 9,300 dead and 648,000 dis\u00adplaced. In all, the tsuna\u00admi is esti\u00admat\u00aded<\/a> to have killed 226,000 and injured half a mil\u00adlion, ren\u00addered 5 mil\u00adlion either home\u00adless or with\u00adout access to food and water, and left one mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple with\u00adout the means to earn a living.<\/p>\n Ill\u00adness thrives in such cir\u00adcum\u00adstances. An addi\u00adtion\u00adal 150,000<\/a> peo\u00adple may have died of infec\u00adtious dis\u00adeases in the weeks and months after the waves reced\u00aded, prompt\u00ading my denom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion to send a med\u00adical mis\u00adsion to south\u00adern India.<\/p>\n My late wife Dawn was part of that mis\u00adsion, pro\u00advid\u00ading med\u00adical care in a makeshift tent to peo\u00adple in Kudanku\u00adlam and near\u00adby vil\u00adlages. Their team nev\u00ader num\u00adbered more than five or six, but they served hun\u00addreds. As word of their work spread, peo\u00adple flocked to their tem\u00adpo\u00adrary facil\u00adi\u00adty \u2013 some old, some only chil\u00addren, all strick\u00aden by grief and need\u00ading com\u00adfort every bit as much as med\u00adical care. They found both in that lit\u00adtle tent in that obscure vil\u00adlage where my wife and her col\u00adleagues worked long days and into the night.<\/p>\n Their effort was part of the $7 bil\u00adlion<\/a> in eco\u00adnom\u00adic aid that arrived from gov\u00adern\u00adments, indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals and relief agen\u00adcies from around the world. The aid went beyond meet\u00ading the imme\u00addi\u00adate needs of food, shel\u00adter and health care. It also involved rebuild\u00ading rav\u00adaged vil\u00adlages, restor\u00ading van\u00adquished enter\u00adpris\u00ades, and pro\u00adtect\u00ading<\/a> against future calamity.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Jour\u00adnal<\/a> chron\u00adi\u00adcled how the areas hard\u00adest hit by the tsuna\u00admi are far\u00ading today. In Kudanku\u00adlam, the fish are more plen\u00adti\u00adful, the coast\u00adline is more secure, homes and schools have been rebuilt, and fish\u00ader\u00admen use cell\u00adphones to mon\u00adi\u00adtor the weath\u00ader and avoid storms.<\/p>\n It is a sto\u00adry that is being repli\u00adcat\u00aded across the globe in a thou\u00adsand ways. Efforts to reduce pover\u00adty by address\u00ading its caus\u00ades and alle\u00advi\u00adat\u00ading its con\u00adse\u00adquences are enjoy\u00ading a lev\u00adel of suc\u00adcess<\/a> nev\u00ader before seen in world his\u00adto\u00adry: hunger and dis\u00adease are in retreat, liv\u00ading stan\u00addards and life expectan\u00adcies among the poor\u00adest are improv\u00ading, eco\u00adnom\u00adic devel\u00adop\u00adment and glob\u00adal lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adcy are on the rise.<\/p>\n Still, pover\u00adty and dis\u00adease per\u00adsist, some of it the result of nat\u00adur\u00adal dis\u00adas\u00adters, much of it the prod\u00aduct of human deprav\u00adi\u00adty. Pope Fran\u00adcis used his Christ\u00admas address<\/a> to call atten\u00adtion to \u201cthe many hearts afflict\u00aded by war, per\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adtion and slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n It seemed an odd\u00adly dis\u00adcor\u00addant mes\u00adsage for a fes\u00adtive sea\u00adson, but it was root\u00aded in the gospel\u2019s fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal insight into the nature of our souls: we are, all of us, flawed, bro\u00adken and in need of redemp\u00adtion. The vio\u00adlence and exploita\u00adtion that we decry in oth\u00aders are noth\u00ading more than extreme expres\u00adsions of the very impuls\u00ades that we sub\u00adli\u00admate, deny and suppress.<\/p>\n Chris\u00adtians call it sin, a uni\u00adver\u00adsal afflic\u00adtion. Even the heroes of our faith are sus\u00adcep\u00adti\u00adble to it: St. Peter was a cow\u00adard<\/a>,<\/span> King David an adul\u00adter\u00ader and mur\u00adder\u00ader<\/a>. The apos\u00adtle Paul, revered as the great\u00adest Chris\u00adt\u00adian the\u00adolo\u00adgian and mis\u00adsion\u00adary, declared him\u00adself the worst of sin\u00adners<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sin char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adizes the human con\u00addi\u00adtion. It dis\u00adtorts our atti\u00adtudes, strains our rela\u00adtion\u00adships, warps our per\u00adcep\u00adtion. Col\u00adlec\u00adtive\u00adly expressed, it has pro\u00adduced a world marred by con\u00adflict and destruc\u00adtion, vio\u00adlence and exploita\u00adtion, suf\u00adfer\u00ading and indifference.<\/p>\n But God is not indif\u00adfer\u00adent. The gospel draws deri\u00adsion from athe\u00adists and revul\u00adsion from those in oth\u00ader reli\u00adgious tra\u00addi\u00adtions when it pro\u00adclaims that God became a human being, enter\u00ading into the mess our sin has made that he might rid us of it. He died to break sin\u2019s shack\u00adles; he rose to free us from its consequences.<\/p>\n In those moments when Chris\u00adtians are most cog\u00adnizant of these truths, we cease to fit the judg\u00admen\u00adtal stereo\u00adtype that we have earned and become instead what Pope Fran\u00adcis described as \u201chum\u00adble peo\u00adple, full of hope in the good\u00adness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n Dawn went to Kudanku\u00adlam full of hope in the good\u00adness of God. She returned in the spring of 2005 with sto\u00adries, pho\u00adtos and rupees that I keep in a sand\u00adwich bag. She didn\u2019t live to see the hap\u00adpy results of her labors. She suf\u00adfered severe brain injury in a traf\u00adfic acci\u00addent that fall and died in the sum\u00admer of 2006.<\/p>\n She died full of hope in the good\u00adness of a God who will not let death have the last word, who will not rest until all is put right.<\/p>\n The sea\u00adson for Christ\u00admas car\u00adols is past, but the joy and hope they express are always in sea\u00adson. Isaac Watts\u2019 \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d writ\u00adten near\u00adly three cen\u00adturies ago, gave voice to that hope:<\/p>\n No more let sin and sor\u00adrows grow,<\/p>\n nor thorns infest the ground.<\/p>\n He comes to make his bless\u00adings known<\/p>\n far as the curse is found.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sin\u2019s curse is every\u00adwhere evi\u00addent \u2013 in wars and nat\u00adur\u00adal dis\u00adas\u00adters, in polit\u00adi\u00adcal and social dis\u00adcord, in frac\u00adtured rela\u00adtion\u00adships, in the mor\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty of our bod\u00adies and the tur\u00admoil of our souls. But God and his bless\u00adings are big\u00adger than all of that. Those bless\u00adings are evi\u00addent today in progress against AIDS<\/span> and malar\u00adia, in relief from hunger and pover\u00adty, in restored rela\u00adtion\u00adships and rec\u00adon\u00adciled ene\u00admies, in prayers God answers and souls he redeems, in rebuilt vil\u00adlages and the renew\u00adal of Kudankulam.<\/p>\n Hap\u00adpy New Year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A decade has passed since a tsuna\u00admi dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00aded vil\u00adlages in 13 Asian coun\u00adtries, which remind\u00aded me that some\u00adwhere I have a plas\u00adtic sand\u00adwich bag filled with rupees. The rupees are among the memen\u00adtoes of a woman I cher\u00adished. She went \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \n