Thursday, August 16, 2012

I dream...

   A few days ago, I created another blog. I just deleted it.

   I thought that if I had something else, another social justice issue, another passion, to write about, I needed to create another blog. I thought I needed to keep my passions separate because they don't belong together because they are so different from each other.

   At first, this blog dreaming of a far away land was about Uganda and its people and my intense longing to go there, to experience life the way that they do, to help...to bring the love of Jesus into their lives. The description of this blog used to read: "Slowly, but surely (and definitely not all at once) I began to fall in love with Uganda. I fell in love with its people who love Jesus with all their hearts but own almost nothing, who put their trust in Him though they sometimes don't know where their next meal will come from. It's odd that I can be so in love with a land and people that I have never met. But all of my uncertainty is overpowered by my love of the Lord who has given me this strange but wonderful love for these people."

   My second blog's description said this: "Three years ago, my heart was completely and utterly shattered. And I thank the Lord that it was. I asked God to break my heart with what breaks His - and He did. Three years ago, I did not know that there are over 27 million slaves in the world right now. Three years ago, I thought America was the land of the free; I thought everyone was treated equally and fairly; I thought our days of owning one another had ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. I was wrong. But I refuse to allow this kind of atrocity to prevail in this world in which I live any longer. I am sick of it and I will work to end it. People have asked me if I really think that I can make any difference in such a big world and such a big problem. My answer is simple: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me, because He has deemed human trafficking as my holy discontent for a purpose - and I will honor that."

    The people of a country I've never seen and people whose freedom is locked tight by another. I thought that these two passions were way too different to combine together, to share a blog. But then I started thinking. I have one purpose when working with both of these communities of people: to bring the hope and healing and love of God into their lives.

   I have two passions...so what? I have no doubt - in fact, I have complete faith - that the Lord will use both of them for His glory. I used to think that I had to choose one because I needed to give my entire life to one certain thing. I was wrong, again. My one purpose in life is to live for God and to work for the glory of His kingdom. I can do that wherever I am, in whatever I am doing. I know that there's a reason that I have a heart for both the people of Uganda and victims of human trafficking. If there weren't, God wouldn't have laid both so heavily on my heart.

   So now dreaming of a far away land is about more than just Uganda and its people. This blog is about me living for Jesus, however that may be.

   I dream about Uganda. I dream about the red dirt that covers everything that I've heard so much about. I dream about children playing in the streets, waving to passersby. I dream about women gathering to make beads to earn a living. I dream about all of these beautiful things. And then I think about the reality of most of the people in this foreign country...and my heart breaks. I think about children, starving to death because they were abandoned two years ago. I think about mothers being forced to sell themselves on street corners to earn enough money to feed their children. I think about fathers leaving and never coming home to their families. And I realize how broken the world is. And I long to jump on a plane and go to Uganda and see these children and mothers and fathers that I dream and think about so often.

   I dream of a ministry that shelters those rescued from sex trafficking and prostitution in Pickaway County. I dream about room after room of nice beds and bathrooms in a safe place so that they may sleep soundly. I dream about Christian social workers and psychologists and doctors and lawyers coming together to help these women and girls overcome their fear of the world. I dream of people coming to Christ and learning to love again, softening hearts. And then I think about the circumstances that these people first must be in to fuel this kind of ministry...and my heart shatters. I think about girls who have not yet reached puberty being raped twenty times a night. I think about women who have been enslaved more of their lives than free. I think about girls being beaten, physically and emotionally, until they are no longer human, until they are just a shell of the person that they used to be...because its easier to sell something that's submissive and obedient rather than someone who will stand up and refuse to be broken.

   In short, I dream of heaven. I dream of a new earth. I dream of a world free of sin and evil. And I know that it will come; that I will no longer have to dream one day because it will be a reality. When Jesus returns, He will create a new heaven and a new earth - and it will be beautiful. 

 

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