"I don't know."

I remember the first time a teacher told me she didn't know the answer. I was a senior in high school and asked my English teacher how to spell "continuing". I couldn't remember if it was "continueing" or "continuing". She couldn't remember either, so she told me to look it up. We both learned something that day.

It has been 8 days since an earthquake of a 7.1 magnitude hit Haiti and another one hit yesterday. Aftershocks continue to rock the poverty stricken country.

And it seems as if anyone and everyone wants to do something. Almost every website I've gone to in the last week has a link to a way you can help- google, C&MA, even craigslist. George Clooney is hosting a "Hope for Haiti" event on Friday. Americans especially want to do something. They feel greater personal gratification when they go shopping for poor people in Haiti. They don't want to just give money- they want to do something. They want to send blankets, they want to buy bottles of water, they want to send paper products.

Yes, we want to do something. But what is our motivation? Do our hearts truly break for those in Haiti? for those who have experienced so much lose and devastation in the past week than we can ever imagine? Do we pray without ceasing for them? for those who have lost loved ones? for those still hoping, still looking?

Maybe this is one of those times when we have to just throw our hands up and say we don't know the answers. But we do know this: we have to do something. They need our money. Money, they know what to do with. Blankets that might not get there for 3 weeks, maybe, but they need our money. Are we listening? Are we listening to their needs and willing to help even if it means less personal gratification for us?

We may not know the answers, but we do know the One who does- and there is great comfort in that. May the God of all comfort be with those in Haiti tonight.