I Want Your Reaction!!!

This past year I have come to a realization about words: 

In the end it doesn’t matter how they are spoken, passionate or apathetic, if they are not followed by action they may as well have fallen on deaf ears.  

At times during this past year I would find myself wondering what to write and coming up with nothing. It’s not that there was a time when nothing was happening, something was always happening. In fact I think that the reason Racer’s sometimes struggle to write is because so much is happening, (big events and small), that it’s hard to explain all of the changes that are taking place. 

For example in my first month in Thailand I found myself desperately longing for a journal like the one that I had at home. It wasn’t a major issue, I was doing fine without one, but at the time the thought of my journal with the scripture quotes at the bottom of each page was comforting. I asked God for a journal with scripture quotes on the pages not anticipating  that I would actually get one. That evening when I went down to look through the free pile there was an un-used journal with scripture quotes on the bottom of each page and I nearly cried right there.

It’s not a big story. It’s also not exactly life changing but it is one small stone in the foundation God built up in my life in 2011 that defines how I interact with Him today.  

Day By Day…

You see, that is what the reality of day to day life is supposed to be like for any Christian. That same day to day stuff doesn’t stop or somehow become more amazing when you get on a plane and fly to Thailand. However in a lot of ways it does become more necessary for us to become practiced at recognizing it.

I was going into the red light district. Every other night my senses were assaulted with the sights, sounds, smells and confusion of Bangla Road. Having never been in a bar before the whole party scene was completely overwhelming. Not to mention the heat, the food, the language barrier or the fact that I was farther from home than I ever had been and among people I had met once at a week long camp. I was out of my comfort zone in every possible way and there was no escaping the fact. I physically wasn’t able to just leave and go some place comforting and familiar.

The only comforting and familiar thing I had left was God. And honestly at the start of the race I wasn’t always sure He was going to be enough. It was only through his faithfulness to prove it to me that I began to really lean on him and take bolder steps of faith. 

 

Those kinds of stories are good and encouraging and sometimes we really need to hear them but I left in pursuit of something more and that’s what I wanted to tell you about. Remember what I said before, words are kind of powerless unless they inspire us to act. I could fill books with words and say a lot of good things but if you aren’t inspired or changed by them then they may as well be written in a foreign language.

For years I read the blogs of racers on the field. I would sit in front of my computer laughing, crying and totally fired up for justice as I lived through their blogs. Through what they had to say I realized that there is SO MUCH MORE to see.

Finally their words moved me to take action and go on my own World Race.

I have a guilty confession to make to you: 

Sometimes I get angry at pictures of starving kids on TV and it’s not because of the injustices in the world that kills 15 million children every year because they don’t have enough to eat. I get angry because I don’t like to see things that I feel are specifically created to get a reaction out of me. I can’t be responsible for something that I don’t know about. I can’t be blamed for not taking action if I never know that the problem exists. Ignorance is BLISS, not rebellion or self-entitlement and it suits a lazy person just fine.

They Are Still There. 

In so many ways as I walked along Bangla Road I felt the same way I used to feel about those commercials except instead of anger I felt fear. It was too much to take in. I felt powerless. I doubted that my efforts could change any of what I was seeing. I was face to face with something that I couldn’t ignore and there was a sense that I was being asked to do something but I had no idea what to do. I had no idea how to react.

I just looked at face after face, sign after flashing sign, street after street soaking it all in and becoming completely AWARE of the existence of a place called Bangla Road.

I couldn’t write about what I seen along Bangla Road while I was there. I didn’t know how to put into words the things I was seeing. I didn’t know how to reach out, how to get angry about it or even how to think about the things that I witnessed there. But they impacted me. They left a large mark on the circuitry of my brain and when I think of Thailand I think of them.

I know that there are still girls in Thailand selling their bodies. There are still orphans in Swaziland fighting AID’s and a little aboriginal girl in Australia growing up in a home where drug use is a normal, daily occurance. There are still families sifting through the garbage in India. There are still little girls trafficked across the border in Nepal. There are homeless men and women lining up for a street feeding in Kuala Lumpur. There are youth in Moldova struggling to raise themselves. There are boys in Mozambique struggling to get through a school system that doesn’t care if they fail.     

They are there. STILL there. ALWAYS there. Knowing that is the hardest part about being home. 

Those commercials no longer make me angry about not being involved they make me ache because it is my wish to be up to my elbows in the poverty of the world fighting for change. I remember faces and names. I remember situations, the stress, hopelessness and tribulations of the world. But I also remember the miracles, the power, the relief, the hope and joy that God poured into every single situation and every single person we came into contact with.  

I struggled to write blogs while on the race because I never wanted to waste your time with forgetable stories. I wanted to leave a mark on you. I wanted to hit you with the reality of what I was seeing and leave you breathless with only one option – To REACT.

Still Running…

The goal behind my new blog is to continue on that mission. To do the research and continue to write words that drive you to respond while at the same time constantly reminding myself never to lose sight of the reality that I have become acquainted with.

It’s also a place for me to explore ideas and come up with creative solutions to one very big problem. I’m not on the race anymore. I’m not in Asia, Africa, Australia or Europe.

I am in Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. I’m your neighbour again.

I admit that I frequently go to Expedia to look up air fares to the places I’ve grown to love but, for better or worse, this is where I live. And that doesn’t mean that I get to stop caring about orphans or trafficking victims in fact I think it means that I have to care EVEN MORE in the very place where it is easy to forget their faces. With knowledge comes great responsibility and it is my hope to find ways to continue advocating for them right where I’m at.  

I’m not excused from or finished with the race. They’re still there and that means I’m still running.

 

www.re-actionwords.blogspot.com  

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