Posted On: June 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
You hear about it a lot and you're probably sick of hearing about it. In fact, you might wonder why people keep bring it up and you've had enough of people on TV saying "Get tested." But despite the millions of dollars being pumped into trying to find a cure for it, it hasn't gone away.
HIV/AIDS.
Odds are, you will know someone who will contract the disease in your lifetime, if you don't already. The disease was diagnosed in over 35,000 people in 2006 in the United States alone. It is estimated that between 36,000,000 and 48,000,000 million people world-wide have the disease, and that number is expected to increase. The highest risk for HIV/AIDS are gay men.
And as you're reading this you're probably think "Yeah, I know that. Go figure." But I ask you to take a minute to think about that. Forty-eight million people are going to have their lifespan cut short because of the disease. Many of these are children who contracted the disease from their mother during birth or breastfeeding as an infant.
As a Christian, it is very easy to become pious. It's easy to say that because we don't have HIV/AIDS and are at very low risk to contracting the disease that we are somehow better than they are. After all, almost 71% of gay men will contract the disease in their lifetime. It's easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that because they're gay, God is somehow going to give them AIDS as a punishment. Or that because someone was promiscuous and now have AIDS, somehow that is their punishment. It is not our place to think that, nor should we preach it. It is a consequence of their actions, though it may not be a punishment. Because it is easy for us to become pious in such situations, it is also very easy for us to be uncompassionate. It's very easy for us to not care or to not want to touch someone with such an "unclean" disease.
However, it is part of our vocation as Christians to take care of those who are less fortunate. This includes those with HIV/AIDS. Christ died for all people, not just for those that are healthy or people that "aren't bad." He forgives us when we don't care or don't want to look in on those who have HIV/AIDS or some other sort of ailment. And He forgives those who have diseases and are unclean.
Recently I was reading an article about a mother with AIDS whose two children were also HIV/AIDS positive. Her only wish was that her children would die before she did so that they would have someone to take care of them on their death bed. She got her wish.
I encourage you to become involved with people who are dying of AIDS. Many of them will die very alone and scared and many will not know the comfort of the Gospel. You may have the opportunity to share it with them.