Let it just be said that I've never been one to join things. I never played team sports as a kid. I was never one of those high school or college kids that–when composing a resume–had to decide which organizations to leave off the page because there wasn't enough room for everything. I could tell you that this was because I moved around too often or was too klutzy for sports or wanted to focus all my energies in one avenue. That would partly be true. However, it's also more than accurate to say that I was a terribly shy little girl who has only recently turned into a less shy woman. I was just flat terrified that people wouldn't like me.
That said, the LORD is working on me. This summer, I committed to joining a second Bible study specifically focused on the topic of injustice. The couple leading the study spent the better part of two years working with Courage Homes in New Dehli, India, a nonprofit organization that "exists to promote healing, transformation and wholeness for girls affected by trafficking and prostitution." You can go to their website here. Since I anticipate that at least part of the work we'll be doing on the World Race will deal with victims of sex/human trafficking, I was really excited to be able to learn from people who've spent a good deal of time fighting against this particular injustice.
We're reading through a book called Not for Sale by the journalist David Batstone. While I wouldn't exactly give Batstone high marks for his writing style, I do appreciate his ability to combine fact with personal profiles, giving a fact to otherwise bland statistics. (Ugh, did I really just use "bland" to describe facts about exploited children?? LORD, change my heart.)
Traditionally speaking, I'm a person who values actions far more than words (I know, based on my long-winded blogs, you probably find that hard to believe.). It kills me to be reading about injustice when there are (estimated) TWENTY-SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE held in slavery (I.e. being held in bondage against their will without pay and freedoms) around the world. If that doesn't blow your mind, consider that the UN estimates that the total market value of human trafficking is around $32 BILLION annually, and it just keeps growing. (Thanks to the International Justice Mission and the U.N. for those "bland" statistics.)
You should know that my hands are shaking as I write this. It breaks my heart to be sitting in this beautiful corner coffee shop that I love so much, watching people drive by my window, when there's a little girl somewhere whose body is worth less than $2, who is raped up to ten times a night. Because that's what it is.
That's what sex slavery is: rape. It breaks my heart that the only thing I can do at this moment is pray and write.
Last night, our leaders decided to spend our entire time together in prayer. To be completely honest, I was less than thrilled. I didn't want to pray for the perpetrators of such horrific crimes. I didn't want to pray for the parents who sell their children into slavery. I didn't even want to pray for the victims themselves. I wanted to be moving, to DO something, to SAVE somebody.
If you're completely disgusted with my line of thought on prayer being action-less, don't worry. I totally agree. Stay with me. It gets better.
In any case, I didn't express this to my group and instead, very docilely got into my group and began to categorize the kinds of injustices we read about. I worked out different societal/cultural/religious causes of the injustices, reasons for why the injustice was an ongoing problem. Sex and human trafficking. Child exploitation and labor. Slavery.
I was–and am–angry, and the prayer time we had didn't stint that anger. If anything, as the prayers progressed, I became even more upset. This wasn't a time when prayer brought me a peace that the LORD had everything under control, that things would be okay. Things definitely are not okay, and honestly, I think that my lack of peace was exactly from the LORD. In my anger, I was feeling His heart. In my anger, I knew His broken heart for the victims and fury with the perpetrators. He is not a passive God who throws up His hands in exasperation at His children's bad behavior. He is not a sedentary God who chooses not to do anything about these injustices. He is not a God of inaction or only good feelings. For the first time, I felt what I can only describe as righteous anger, a holy rage. This was Micah 6:8 being breathed into my heart because He was telling me what is good, reminding me of His commands: to DO Justice, to LOVE kindness, and to WALK HUMBLY with my God.
DO JUSTICE. Not "Sit back on your butt and wait for me to take care of it," but GET UP AND DO SOMETHING. GET MOVING.
This is the good news about injustice, I think, that we have a GOD who cares mightily about His people in all walks of life, but especially for those who are defenseless, fatherless, homeless, exploited, enslaved. Psalm 68 says to "Rejoice before Him: His name is the LORD. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows… He leads out the prisoners with singing… He marched out before His people." It's even better news that the LORD refuses to let us sit by idly and watch as people are abused, but rather, invites into partnership with Him to fight against it.
My heart is unashamedly filled with holy anger at these injustices. I want to be part of the salvation that will arrive on the run (Isaiah 51:5), " to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free" (Luke 4:17-21), all of which He gives me the power to do by His Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-21).
Right now that means that I go to LifeGroup and pray for the victims, the perpetrators, the families, the communities, the law enforcement, the cultural/social/religious/fiscal factors that impact these issues and for the opportunity to step out in boldness against it.
Right now, that means I write vehement words that the Enemy tries to attack.
Right now, that means that I shake with holy anger and then remember that the I am fighting alongside the all-powerful JEHOVAH… and that means that the Devil is fighting a losing battle (Hey Buddy, you are SCREWED. You don't have a shadow of a chance. Don't you know that by now?).
"I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like grass and disappear? Yet you have forgotten the LORD, your Creator, the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. Will you remain in a constant dread of human oppressors? Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies? Where is their fury and anger now? It is gone! Soon all you captives will be released! Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate! For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the LORD of Heaven's Armies. I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand. I stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. I am the one who says to you, "You are my people!"" —Isaiah 51: 12-16
