This great evil, where's it come from?
How'd it steal into the world?
What seed, what root did it grow from?
Who's doing this?
Who's killing us?
Robbing us of life and light?
Mocking us with the sight of what we might have known?
Does our ruin benefit the earth?
Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine?
Is this darkness in you, too?
Have you passed through this night?
-Have you passed through this night?, Explosions In The Sky (Listen to this above...bomb)
This week our book discussion is on a book called Not For Sale. Each chapter focuses on a part of the world and a type of slavery that is present in that country. It ends with a hopeful story in each chapter - stories about success in the abolitionist movement. But it also ends with the fact that the issue is still present. One child, one woman, one victim of whatever age and gender may have found freedom, but the numbers of those still suffering are disgusting. It pains my heart to read these stories; my eyes read the words, but my brain lags far behind in processing them. As I read, some turn to movies playing out in my mind and somehow they get stuck feel like that - fiction. They are not, but my mind and heart cannot fathom nor even begin to understand the brokenness that the oppressors and oppressed are experiencing. The words on the pages are not just words. They are real. There is tragic story after tragic story of real people with real lives that are absolutely stolen from them. I get angry reading things like this and feel like all I have left is a thousand questions.
Why are people even doing this?
Why don't more people know about this?
Why isn't something being done about it?
I don't get it. I don't understand...in any context.
Seriously, where are people when these things are happening?
Where are people when parents are selling their children to traffickers so they can buy some something that should not ever take precedence over a life?
Where are people when little girls and teenage girls are being promised jobs and education in a far-away place, when really they are being taken captive into the sex trade?
Where are people when little kids are being trapped in the ranks of an army that shouldn't even exist in the first place, and being forced to ruthlessly murder, torture, and rape everyone in their path?
Where are people when young girls are taken into family's homes to become enslaved laborers, in addition to the father's sex slave?
Where are people when street kids are being viewed as a part of the city that needs to be exterminated and actions being taken to do so?
My thoughts just keep screaming, "why is this happening!? and why are we letting it happen!?"
I have no answers, only questions. Along with a heart pumping boiling blood if I'm going to be honest.
You know...none of us really understand the magnitude of modern-day slavery, but just in case you didn't know - it's everywhere. Yes, that means right in our home country of America, right in our home state, right in our hometown. I decided to check out the Not For Sale website...then I found a link to a Slave Map that is a small, small picture of just how close slavery is to our lives. What did I find? My new office in Dallas...750 N. St. Paul Street - 11 minute walk to three locations that sex slavery has been found, one of which involved children. 11 minute walk. 11. Here's the link if you want to see for your self:
Proximity of slavery to my life.
And to think...that's only the places that have been found. This thing, whatever monster it is, of slavery continues because it has a veil. It's invisible. It continues to thrive because people like us are failing to realize it's happening and failing to take action against it. When is something going to be done? My hope is sustained by the promise of Jesus' return that will make all right again, but seriously - are we just going to shrug our shoulders, view it as someone else's problem, and just wait for that day.
You know why I can comfortably place faith in that end?
Because I'm NOT enslaved. It's women, men, and children that are all disconnected from my pattern of life.
Just because we are promised that one day it will be fixed, my heart is not settled to sit around waiting for that day - I may be innocent of the actions, but I'm no longer ignorant. And neither are you. Knowledge comes bearing the gift of a not-so-neatly packaged responsibility to act. What are we doing? I cannot take the world by storm and rid it of every case of slavery, but that doesn't mean something of my efforts aren't going to fit into the attempt to do so. This is a great burden of the world, and I know Christ is calling my heart, my mind, and my hands to be a part of these efforts somewhere, somehow. I have no idea where that will be in the future, but that's been in Kolkata, India for the past three and a half months...forming precious relationships with some beautiful women that have found a sense of freedom from slavery.
I can promise you one thing: freedom is worth every fight...
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