Last March, I had the
privilege of living in a home that houses
women (and girls) that have been rescued from a life of selling
themselves on the streets of India to make a tiny living. As you may or
may not know, I began to fall in love with these women as I heard their
horrific stories and saw their lives transformed by the love of Jesus.
These are hurting women like I’ve never seen, and yet their smiles and
optimism about life gave me hope.
As I reflect on the past year of my life, my heart is grieved at
the poverty and desperation so prevalent around the world, especially
when I look at all I have been given. We are so quick to say that we
don’t have much, but I now know that is simply not true. Even though I
carried all of my possessions on my back last year and wasn’t making a
monetary income, I knew that I had SO MUCH MORE than most of the people
I was encountering. It astounds me to see how little people can survive
on and what hardships they endure on a daily basis just to buy their
daily bread.
meal to your elderly neighbors? How about a new shirt for the kid in
school everyone makes fun of? Perhaps it’s spending time with those
less fortunate than you, the ones that society labels “filthy,” “lazy,”
and “no-good.” There’s no better way to show the love of Christ than to
dine with “sinners.”
have gone through. It’s wrong of us to make assumptions about how and
why their lives look a certain way. Until we’re able to humble
ourselves and hear their heartbeats, we will never be able to show the
real love and compassion of Jesus.
the same.
We are all crying out for an unconditional love that is not
of this world,
and once we’ve found it, the yearning of our hearts
should be to give it away.
