In the wise words of The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian, “the human world…it’s a mess”.
Before coming on the race, I was living in Malorie’s world, and to be honest, that world was pretty great. But now that my world has collided with the ‘human world’ things have gotten a lot messier. I can no longer turn a blind eye to the things I once ignored.
Lately I’ve been struggling to really process everything I’m experiencing, to describe the things I’m seeing, and to live the life that I do.
This month my team and I have been going into townships to talk with people and help out at a daycare. Homes in the townships are made from scrap metal and are about the size of my parents foyer in their home. The sand beneath your feet is littered with broken glass, cigarette buts, and used condoms, all a product of the free time residents have with nothing ‘better’ to do. It’s the same sand that children play on and that some lay their heads on to sleep at night.
We return from those townships to a hostel located in a mostly safe community that houses us with bunk beds, clean drinking water, warm showers, and toilets that flush.
And that’s why I struggle.
I struggle because I have these things. I didn’t ask for them or even really work for them… they were just handed to me. I come back after a few hours living among the poorest of the poor to a comfy life in a comfy room with good people and nutritious food. I lay awake at night thinking of the children I met that day and wonder if they’ve had dinner, if their parents paid any attention to them, and imagine the things that they’re living through that so prematurely strip them of their innocence/childhood. I think about all of the people caught up in trafficking until it makes me sick to my stomach. Images of the endless abortion clinics, abusive relationships, and witchcraft doctors that I’ve seen that day flash through my mind until I decide it’s better to just stare at the ceiling and pray with my eyes open.
The human world…it’s a mess.
In becoming more sensitized to the world and it’s realities I’ve started to put names with things. The orphan you can feed “for just a dollar a day” is named Sam*. His favorite color is blue and he has the cutest laugh you’ll ever hear. The single mom looking for another job is named *Rachel. She lived in fear for her life until she took her children and left her husband in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. The heroin addict you see living on the street is named *Elizabeth. She had dreams of attending college until she was tricked into sex trafficking at the age of 18. She spent 6 years forcibly addicted to drugs and was tied blindfolded to a bed. Once the house she was trapped in was “done with her”, they threw her out on the streets to live.
These aren’t just stories. They’re lives. They are real people with real names living in this all to real human world.
But you know what else has come to have a name for me? Hope. Strength. Redemption. Freedom. Jesus is that name. When I come back to the hostel after a day in the township and have lost all hope, I call on His name for restoration. When I question if I can really do this for four more months, He reassures me with a renewed strength. Although I see so much ugliness day after day, I’ve also seen people be set free by trusting and believing in His name.
The human world may be a mess, but we serve a God of order; a God who calls us to live in the messy human world, but not be of it. When we choose to acknowledge the reality of this world instead of pretending like everything is fine, we choose to shine the light of Christ in the darkness. The power we have in us is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That power was given to us by the creator of the universe, who is on our side…imagine how different this messy human world would look if we all started to live under that authority.
*name changed for privacy
