Today I arrived in a Cambodian village to teach English and was greeted by loads and loads of naked children. Everywhere I looked it seemed like more and more naked kids just kept showing up to learn English! As I looked around at those kids and their living conditions, I was in complete culture shock. I kept thinking to myself, "I am definitely not in America anymore."
I am so used to seeing kids fully clothed, kids who are clean, kids who have nice clothes, kids that are well fed, etc. While here you see malnourished children who have not taken a bath in weeks, many have lice in their hair, and many have no clothes on. Watching those kids living in such poverty was very difficult to take in.
Unfortunately, it is actually quite natural for us to look at children who are living in those conditions and say, "Wow, these kids are really dirty." While Jesus would say, "Wow, these are children are beautiful."
It is easy for us to think, "Oh man this child smells and really needs a bath." While Jesus would be sitting in the dirt letting countless children climb all over Him as He smiled and laughed with them.
Or some may even think, "Maybe I should not hug these kids because they have lice and I could get lice if I pick them up." Yet Jesus would be hugging and lavishing His love upon them.
The whole point of me coming on the World Race was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations and show His love to everyone I meet. Today I learned that true love is MESSY. Love is not always fun, love is not always picture perfect, and love is definitely not pretty or clean. Love is picking up a naked child who has not bathed in months and hugging them because that is what Christ would do.
Each and everyday, for the rest of my entire life, I hope to look more and more like Jesus and less like the world.
"the simplicity of the Gospel might offend you"
Man isn't that the truth! We tend to make it so difficult but in actuality, all we are called to do is just be Jesus to people. So let's rise up as a body of Christ and JUST BE JESUS
