About 4-5 years ago I heard a song that really challenged me. It shook my heart up and gave me a desire to "be aware of my surroundings" and to "see people the way God sees people." This song challenged me to pray "Lord, give me Your eyes for just one moment." Which may not sound like a long hard prayer...well until the Lord allows you to begin seeing people the way He sees people.
My life began to change. I would be driving down the road and see a person with a bike, putting the bike on the rack to the Blacksburg Transit bus. The Lord would begin to get my mind wandering, maybe that man just lost his job or his wife just left him for another man. I would see a young girl jogging down the street and I would feel impressed that she had been sexually abused or was struggling with her weight to the point of wrestling with bulimia. Or I would see an elderly couple in the grocery store hardly able to push the cart and I would see the hurt and pain from outliving their children. The list could go on and on.
This prayer, "to have the Lord's eyes," has broken my heart. At times I am just overwhelmed beyond words...because I do not always know how to respond to "seeing things the way the Lord sees them."
Tonight was one of those nights. A night I wished I never prayed that prayer. A night I wished I didn't care about people and the hurt, injustice and prisons they live in. I was out with my two younger boys. We went to Caleb's basketball game, then we had a dinner date and we ended the night in Wal-mart (every boy's nightmare) doing errands. We were just 3 isles away from being done and heading home, when I saw her.
She was a tall girl. She was wearing a short gray wool winter coat and extremely high heels that may be considered ankle boot heels (I am not a fashion aware kind of a girl so that is probably not what they are really called). Her lengthy boney legs were bare up to her coat. There was no clothing evident except for her coat. She was by herself and reading the labels, for an excessively long period of time, on every item she put into her cart.
Right away my heart sunk. I have been researching and trying to education my self on the injustice issue of Human Trafficking. I have tried to help educate others as I have been educating myself. With the International Labour Organization estimates there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, I have not felt able to just pretend like I never knew this was going. In America in 2013, all 50 states reported multiple human trafficking cases. And here I am in my own local Wal-mart, on the last official day of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and my eyes have been opened to what would appear to be a trafficked girl.
The sickening feeling in my stomach got worse as each isle I went down I would run into this girl again. I prayed those "quick God, I need help" kind of prayers. But the panic was sinking in, I don't know enough. I don't know how to help. I don't know how to engage. I don't know where to go for help. I just don't know...
Finally, I looked the girl in the face and greeted her. She quickly looked away but I was able to see her sunken in face, "dolled-up face" with cakes of make-up. It is a face I will not forget anytime soon.
To be honest, I do not "know" that she is a "trafficked" girl. But I sensed that she may be. To be honest, I don't know anything about her. But my heart has been heavy since crossing her path tonight. To be honest, she may be perfectly happy. But when my eyes met hers for those few seconds, I saw a girl who needs a Savior. A Savior who gave His life for her, and for me and for YOU. To be honest, that is why I need to obey and go into the ends of the earth. Because people NEED to hear and know there is a Savior who loves them and desires to be in relationship with them. To be honest, that prayer, "Give me Your eyes," is a hard prayer that I hope I will pray for the rest of my life.
Human Trafficking Resources:
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