Hell is right here and now.
People live in it.
Let me elaborate on this. There are thousands, if not millions of people who live in a realistic hell. It is known as "hell on earth." Look at the news.
Tornados have ripped through the country, namely Alabama, Kentucky, and Indiana. Results: hundreds have died in its path, homes destroyed, utilities are gone, which means no electricity, water; and hope is slim, if not anywhere to be found.
Riots in the "Muslim" world. This has been happening for three months. You know the countries: Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Iran, Libya. Many of which have been nonviolent protests, the idea of Civil Disobedience. People are unhappy with the dictatorships they live under. People live under "one-world ideas," freedom is an obscure term, bigotry and hatred are perpetrated by the elected.
Osama bin Laden died in the past day. He's gone and people are fighting the judging whether it was justified or not; really, why waste the energy? Look at Afghanistan, they have been trudging through famine, for years. People are suffering for lack of food. Kids are sold into slavery because there's not enough money to feed them.
And the others that find themselves locked into trafficking and sold as slaves. Subjected to torture, rape, STDs, unlivable conditions, lack of sanitation. Even children are not immune to this atrocity.
Or those who are refugees in their own country. These people did nothing wrong, and are forced to live in tents.
Or those whose children are kidnapped, abducted, and forced to fight in a war. A mad man forces children to rebel against government and fight his war.
Even the drought that has hit North and Central Africa over the past year. Places like Niger, where kids are starving to death.
Hurricane devastation that leaves places in Haiti unlivable and are subjected to Cholera.
Or even Burma, which suffered one of the worst earthquakes in decades.
Or Japan, which had one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
…or…
I could go on. We could talk about disaster, upon disaster. How people are subjected to diseases, war, death, and famine. It could play on your emotions, which by now, it probably already has. I mean I am angry right now, so it is safe to assume you probably are as well.
There are people, alive today, that live in hell. Hell on earth. It is absolutely real. I love what Rob Bell expresses in Love Wins, that we spend so much time on whether we get in to Heaven or are going to Hell because of the choices we make. That we neglect that Hell is or isn't just place we go to when we live this plane, but that it is physically represented right now. People live in it. Some people live their entire lives in it.
I share this because we are so caught up in the future, that we neglect the now. We care more about our own safety that we neglect those who find themselves without. Today people are living and dying in hell, Improper living conditions, diseases, starvation, war, take your pick. Many of these people cannot do anything for the situations they find themselves in.
Bell even goes as far as to say that, "there's hope" is the Christian message. Actually he states that too often we proclaim that "there's no hope," and by the looks of it, it seems like he is right in his statement. If we believe that we are called to bring hope, then what are we doing about it?
Basically…
What are we doing about the hell that we hear about everyday?
Are we bringing hope to the hopeless? Feeding the hungry? Curing diseases? Eradicating slavery, once and for all? Freeing prisoners and liberating captives? Loving the unloved? Bringing peace and order to chaos?
