The last couple of
weeks in Thailand were a little difficult to take in. I saw many things there that I had never seen before. In the midst of all of the bar hopping,
buying of prostitutes, and pole dancing for every passer-by to see…there were
also a ton of families there with their young children. There were several times when I wanted
to grab the 5, 6, 7 year old little boys/girls, shield their eyes, and run away
from that street and all of those things that they, in their innocence should
not be looking at. I don’t think
that I really processed through these things until after we had left Thailand
and attended “debrief� with our squad.
One day, as I was having some quiet time with God, I read James 1:27 which says,
“Pure and undefiled religion before our God
and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to
keep oneself unstained by the world!�
I suppose that James meant these to be
separate things that made up “pure and undefiled religion�. One thing being “to
look after orphans and widows� and another being “to keep oneself unstained by
the world.� However, I saw these
things as one.
As I am traveling to
different countries, I see many adults, children, and teenagers who have a lot
of physical needs. They are
hungry. They are orphans. They are trapped in the sex slave trade. They all NEED something. God showed me in this verse that as I
see all of these difficult things to see, I should not allow myself to become
desensitized to them. Yes, I see
it almost everyday. However, I
should feel the same love and compassion after the first 5 months that I felt
in the very beginning.
The first day that
we went to “Walking Street� in Pattaya, Thailand, it was SO overwhelming. On this street in particular, the
prostitution is blatantly obvious.
I could not believe that this happened each night. I felt so much hurt and a little bit of
righteous anger….But on the last night that we were there, it almost seemed a
little bit normal. HOW could
something like that become even the least bit NORMAL? As I read James 1:27, God convicted me of this as well.
I desire to remain “unstained�
by the world. My hope is that you
do as well. This “staining� comes
a little bit at a time. It doesn’t
show itself all at once. Guard
your hearts and minds, as I will be doing also.
