Greetings from Cambodia! This is my little buddy from “42 Village”. A slum outside of Kampong Cham.
I’m trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. It’s what most of my blog posts are about – but it’s the reality of this crazy challenging journey. I don’t have it all together. It has taken me to travel to 7 different countries in 7 months to realize that I don’t know what it really means to be a Christian.
I’m selfish.
I want what is best for me above all others far too often.
I desire comfort.
As the four-year old Cambodian slum girl clings tighter to me than to her own mother, I realize…
I fall short.
I’m not Jesus.
See, this sweet slum girl, with her rotting teeth, has hair infested with lice.
I found myself more concerned that she would contaminate my hair with lice than I was concerned with loving her, as Jesus would.
My humanity.
My sinful nature.
My care for myself above this little girl,
brings me to my knees in brokenness.
Jesus pursued the “least of these” with fervor and grace.
He touched those that were never touched – the diseased, the destitute, the dirty.
As this little girl is fighting for enough food and water to get her through the day – as she takes care of her younger siblings because her parents are drunks and have peaced out on her life – I, I’m, worried about lice.
Fast forward. The Kampong Cham prison. Over 1000 inmates. My team is teaching English and sharing stories with a handful of the inmates this week. Over 40 inmates came to hear from us and learn from us yesterday afternoon. As they listened to the story of Jesus from Noah, I purposefully glanced into each of their eyes. Each set of eyes tells a story. Stories of nightmares and incredible pain.
When we think of serving others in the name of Jesus – we mostly think of the orphan, the widow, the homeless.
But what about :
The murderer?
The thief?
The rapist?
The sex-trafficker?
Whew.
Noah asked the inmates a question. He asked them, “are you guys sorry for the crime you committed to bring you here?” A man, in his blue jump suit raised his hand to answer the question. He said, “I am very sorry but I am thankful because now I hear about Jesus.”
Jesus loves the murderers. He loves the thieves. And He loves the lice infested children in the slums.
The sweet children of “42 Village”
Do I love the people that Jesus loves?
As I glanced into the eyes of the inmates, I felt compassion. And as they sang “Lord I lift Your Name on High” to us, I realized… this, yes, this is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is full of murderers and thieves praising a God who forgives. This is what it means when Jesus prays, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Jesus’ ways surprise me. His ways challenge me. And, as I continually fall short – He’s teaching me. He’s making me more like Himself as He continually asks me to step out of my comfort zone. I read this about faith earlier today, “we don’t really need faith and can’t understand it until we literally have no idea what’s supposed to happen next” (Ken Wytsma).
I don’t necessarily know how to love the prisoner. Or the lice infested child. But, I know that Jesus loves them. And if Jesus loves them, He is going to give me the strength to love them too. It takes faith, which doesn’t always come naturally. We claim to be followers of Jesus, let’s live as that is our reality. Let’s love because He first loved us. Let’s get dirty with the dirty because that’s what Jesus did for you and me. He didn’t have to leave Heaven to come to this broken earth. But He did. So let’s go, and do the same.
Braiding a teenage girls hair in “42 Village”
