I started crying in Chili’s parking lot today. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. Tears erupted from a collision of two worlds, two mindsets, two poverties, two lives. Earlier in the day, Seth Barnes’s blog (please read) brought me to Swaziland – into a hut where a mom did not have enough milk to feed her 4 week old baby. But now, standing in a parking lot in Kansas, my family and I could not decide where we wanted to go to lunch: Chili’s, Wild Wings, Arby’s, the mall food court. I wasn’t even hungry.
The AIDS crisis in Swaziland breaks the heart of Jesus. Testimonies like this break open past wounds; bottled up emotions resurface. Now, instead of tears falling freely on orphans’ heads and bare feet, they fall, reluctantly, on American pavement. Scared of rejection and confused stares. “Wake up America”, each one echoes as it slides over my cheek. Then, one rings truer than those who fell before it, “Don’t forget, Stephanie. Don’t fall asleep. Remember Me. Love Me. Share Me.”
They notice the tears and they want to know ‘Why?’ Minds are silenced as this broken heart sinks into us all…
