I have been on The world Race for a little over 3 weeks now and both my squad and I have seen our fair share of hopelessness and pain. We have seen everything from young girls on their way to sell themselves to complete strangers, to the little children with scars and bruises on their body from being abused by an adult. These have become pretty common things on some of our minds these last couple of weeks.
In these situations a lot of our first thoughts is to be angry and make those responsible pay for their actions. How can they do such a horrible thing? What makes them think they can do that without consequences? What kind of messed up horrible monster can do such a thing?
All of these are real questions and bring out very real and justified emotions. One of the hardest things in life is to try and understand why some see injustices and tragedy when others just see life. In these situations a default we all fall into at some point is to demonize those responsible. We make them seem like lesser people, even monsters in our mind, so that way it makes it easier to deal with and justify not doing anything about it. We have not been given the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace and forgiveness of the father to pick and choose who we impart that grace and forgiveness to. Every single one of these situations, and many more, are full of victims on both sides. Everyone has a story and each is different and beautiful even the ugly parts.
Why does that PERSON need to buy affection? What is missing in that PERSON’S life that they are filling with sexual sin? What makes that PERSON feel so unloved that they need to buy the love of another PERSON, even if it’s a couple hours?
What happened to that PERSON that made them think it is ok to abuse another PERSON? Who hurt that PERSON that they are now trying to cover up by hurting other PEOPLE? Why hasn’t anyone poured love into that PERSON so that they could then pour that love out instead of anger and frustration?
All of these PEOPLE are victims in every single sense of the word. Every single PERSON has a story and need the love of the father in them. I don’t want us to be a surface society of disciples anymore where we only help in a way that we understand or want to. Everyone wants to help the prostitute find her way into a new life. Nobody wants to help the man buying girls find the Love that he has been missing for so long. Everyone wants to swoop in and rescue the little boy next door who cries at night from the abuse he endured that day. Nobody wants to swoop in and rescue the parent responsible for that child’s tears and show them a love and compassion that nobody ever has before.
Hurting people hurt people is a pretty simple self-explanatory saying on the surface, but there is so much power in those words.For all have sinned and fall short of the the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). None of us are perfect and each of us makes mistakes. That is what makes life, the freedom given to us, and the power of God so beautiful. Each of us have messy, screwed up, and ugly chapters in our stories. In those times it would have been so easy for people to ignore us and define us by the sin that we found ourselves in. Luckily someone who had love and grace saw more than the sin and saw you a PERSON and a magnificent creation of God.
Next time you see someone causing some sort of pain please don’t judge them. Don’t label them anything but a beautiful child of God and someone in desperate need of the love and Grace that you have received yourself. You can’t give what you don’t have. Maybe that man at the bar looking for prostitutes is one loving person away from walking back home filled with joy and restoration. Maybe that mom next door who abuses her kids is one loving person away from kissing her kids goodnight and truly loving them as well as herself. Loving the unlovables is not easy. If it was we would have started doing it by now. But, it is one of the best ways to share the Gospel. After all God loved us when we were unlovable.
