Look into their eyes...

“You can see Jesus anywhere”…was what I overheard last weekend at a workshop I went to about child abuse. I have been rolling that around in my head since that day and what that means and the implications that would mean for all followers of Christ. I love the stories in the bible where Jesus heals the blind, he helps them to see things from a new perspective, he helps to bring life and color back into their darkened lives, maybe even opens up their minds and they way they saw the world. There were no barriers for Jesus; he took light to all people. This week I sat with one girl and after I immediately introduced myself she automatically put me and her in an “us” vs. “them” camp. She said, “So you’re not like us?” To which I said, “Well I am I’m a woman just like you.” My heart sank because I knew right there that she and I would never be able to come to the same camp site. In her eyes her identity was her dark past and I was just another Caucasian woman who “has it all together” who would never understand her story. But I looked again in her eyes and as we conversed we found common ground in that she lived in the Middle East and I told her I did also. When we see the image of God in people we should have the heart to keep finding ways to open their eyes and our own. Through that experience I gained a trust from her and as I looked at her eyes I could see her creep towards the middle camp site where I was waiting. As the evening progressed she turned and looked me straight in the eyes and asked “do you ever get lonely?” “ABSOLUTIELY!” I said. “Really even though you look like that?” she asked. Compassion filled me and I smile and said, “I feel that way many times and just because you look one way or another does not mean we have it all together.” That night she and I helped one another through our individual blindness, her in her assumptions and me in lack of faith that God can find ways to connect people no matter how dark the situation. She gave me life and color back that night when I looked in her eyes. Being a Christ follower is not easy, peaceful and especially not comfortable, and we have to learn to open our hearts to take away any blindness we have towards people we find it hard to have compassion for. It’s my prayer the more I spend with these courageous women the more my own blindness is cured with each time I spend looking in their eyes. It seems that when we have the scales or the mud taken from our eyes we are able to look into the eyes of others and see they bear the image of God just as we do, we are the same—when you look in their eyes. You can find Him and His image anywhere-all you do is look. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “there are no ordinary beings.”

Heart Burn...

My theme throughout this blog is going to be the idea that we are all welcomed to the table. Meaning we are all called to God's table, no questions asked just love and grace given to those who want to join in on the party. I first realized this table idea when I went to Camp Barnabas in Missouri where a group of campers with special needs looked past my disabilities and imperfections and welcomed me with open arms, no questions asked. I realized then this is the table God wants ALL of us at.

So I prayed "God I wanna know who needs to come to the table and I want to learn to sit next to them." That led me on a challenging journey that has expanded my heart on so many levels. People asked why I would come and do this with these women and I said, "I want to know what it's like to sit at the table with them, they deserve to come, just as I do, what makes them any different?" So here we go, I also pray that through my experience you can learn to pull up a seat with someone and learn to sit and talk with them, have a meal with them-who knows what you will have in common.

Sometimes after we eat we get heart burn, it hurts and we don't like it but it happens, so here are some hard facts. Not all my blogs will be like this but in order to know someone we have to know the hurt we cause:
The porn industry is a $60 Billion industry a year
12 million Americans partake in this, that's 20% of the world's population
Americans spend more on porn than with pro baseball, football, and basketball combined
The gross revenue on porn is more then NBS, ABC, and CBS combined
90% of w0men in porn ads. are between the ages of 8-16
Age 11 is the leading consumer for porn-targets 12-17 years old
200 films are made each week
past 10 years we have spent more on porn than on foreign aid
1 film per working hour
20% of men admit to watching porn at work; 13% women admit
28% new users of porn are women
97% of the women in this films, ads., etc. have been sexual or physically abused as children.
(for more facts and ways to know about human trafficking visit www.thedefendersusa.org)

This is not something to say, "ahh what a shame" and move on with life and be sad for awhile...BUT something to get mad about-I don't mean picketing or being aggressive or whatever but these faces of women HAVE a Name, Have a Father, IS a Princess, get mad these are injustices to them and that we as humanity should be finding ways to saves these lives. Stand up and defend a female or male in your life who is seen or talked about as if they are an object-that's how we can all start to fight this. Start to change the idea of sexism, kill it there is no place for it. Period.

More to come from the table...