The Myers Briggs Personality Test will tell you that I am a feeler. And I am, hands down.
Most days that can be my Achilles heel.
Being a feeler is the very reason I find myself sipping coffee at 5am, with tears running down my cheeks, unable to sleep. It may be a four cup day. My veins haven't decided yet.
For nearly two years now I have worn a little black bracelet. Don't even take it off to shower.
Sometimes people ask me what the writing on it means, mainly children. And I usually mumble around politely and offer the explanation that a friend gave it to me.
When in fact, I purchased this bracelet because the proceeds went to fund shelters for victims coming out of human trafficking.
My entire being wants to respond with: 'This bracelet is a constant reminder of children around your age that have seen and felt more pain in one week than most do in a lifetime.' But you can't tell a child that. Parents would disapprove of that answer. So you shrug it and make it more lighthearted than it truly is.
And you can justify not talking about this issue with children to an extent. Yet I do the same in daily life.
Frankly, I don't like the topic of human trafficking because the only thing that I know about it is that it is wrong. And shouldn't be. And yet it is.
I don't research statistics and I try to avoid any speaker that touches the subject.
Just one glance at the numbers and you feel defeated before you have even started. And no amount of words or writings could do these victims justice.
yet here I am.
My heart doesn't know which way to beat. I'm going to take a stab at pouring it out through words. I've quenched it for months now.
I feel powerless.
Beautiful young girls and boys are sold into human trafficking daily.
Their stories are not told. Their voices are not heard. Their freedom is stolen for a cheap price. To be brutally honest, after a while they are forgotten.
How many of you still think of the school girls in Nigeria that got taken? Not many I'm willing to bet. It was all over the news. It happened this past Summer.
We get fired up about a social injustice but after a while we go back to our daily routines. Every finger I'm pointing is at myself here. Raising and keeping awareness almost seems like an uphill battle.
DONT EVER STOP THOUGH.
God has been convicting me lately that we are their voices. If this happened to one of my children, I would never, could never, be quiet about the issue.
They are not my children. But they are God's children. And that is an even bigger reason to never turn a blind eye to their stories and the issue at hand.
The problem with raising awareness is that some will respond, others will not.
So kick it up a notch.
Pray.
Fervently.
Cover these precious human beings in your prayers, daily.
I can't even imagine for a second what the feeling of being trafficked is. Much less going through it without knowing the love of Jesus.
We must intercede for them.
We know what to pray. And pray it abundantly. Shower them with pleads to God on their behalf. At anytime. They need hope, especially during the 'work' hours and nights.
Lastly, it is normal to be angry. Take that with a grain of salt.
You should be angry about human trafficking. You should be so angry that it stirs you up inside to love ferociously. King David was angry, he writes in Psalm 139: 19-22
"God, I wish you would kill the wicked!
Get away from me, you murderers!
They say evil things about you.
Your enemies use your name thoughtlessly.
Lord, I hate those who hate you;
I hate those who rise up against you.
I feel only hate for them;
they are my enemies."
Yeahh David, I get this emotion. Completely.
But God doesn't let David stay in his anger.
This last part may very well be the hardest for me. PRAY FOR THE PERPETRATORS.
Jesus did.
He said, "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do."
Pray that their hearts would soften to the sickness that they have.
There are many of them. We can only get to them through prayer.
Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."
God can change their hearts.
3,287 people are sold every day.
My bracelet says 'Passion for change' on it. And this world desperately needs a passion for change.
Don't quench this knowledge. It's heavy. It's messy. But God is bigger.
Most days that can be my Achilles heel.
Being a feeler is the very reason I find myself sipping coffee at 5am, with tears running down my cheeks, unable to sleep. It may be a four cup day. My veins haven't decided yet.
For nearly two years now I have worn a little black bracelet. Don't even take it off to shower.
Sometimes people ask me what the writing on it means, mainly children. And I usually mumble around politely and offer the explanation that a friend gave it to me.
When in fact, I purchased this bracelet because the proceeds went to fund shelters for victims coming out of human trafficking.
My entire being wants to respond with: 'This bracelet is a constant reminder of children around your age that have seen and felt more pain in one week than most do in a lifetime.' But you can't tell a child that. Parents would disapprove of that answer. So you shrug it and make it more lighthearted than it truly is.
And you can justify not talking about this issue with children to an extent. Yet I do the same in daily life.
Frankly, I don't like the topic of human trafficking because the only thing that I know about it is that it is wrong. And shouldn't be. And yet it is.
I don't research statistics and I try to avoid any speaker that touches the subject.
Just one glance at the numbers and you feel defeated before you have even started. And no amount of words or writings could do these victims justice.
yet here I am.
My heart doesn't know which way to beat. I'm going to take a stab at pouring it out through words. I've quenched it for months now.
I feel powerless.
Beautiful young girls and boys are sold into human trafficking daily.
Their stories are not told. Their voices are not heard. Their freedom is stolen for a cheap price. To be brutally honest, after a while they are forgotten.
How many of you still think of the school girls in Nigeria that got taken? Not many I'm willing to bet. It was all over the news. It happened this past Summer.
We get fired up about a social injustice but after a while we go back to our daily routines. Every finger I'm pointing is at myself here. Raising and keeping awareness almost seems like an uphill battle.
DONT EVER STOP THOUGH.
God has been convicting me lately that we are their voices. If this happened to one of my children, I would never, could never, be quiet about the issue.
They are not my children. But they are God's children. And that is an even bigger reason to never turn a blind eye to their stories and the issue at hand.
The problem with raising awareness is that some will respond, others will not.
So kick it up a notch.
Pray.
Fervently.
Cover these precious human beings in your prayers, daily.
I can't even imagine for a second what the feeling of being trafficked is. Much less going through it without knowing the love of Jesus.
We must intercede for them.
We know what to pray. And pray it abundantly. Shower them with pleads to God on their behalf. At anytime. They need hope, especially during the 'work' hours and nights.
Lastly, it is normal to be angry. Take that with a grain of salt.
You should be angry about human trafficking. You should be so angry that it stirs you up inside to love ferociously. King David was angry, he writes in Psalm 139: 19-22
"God, I wish you would kill the wicked!
Get away from me, you murderers!
They say evil things about you.
Your enemies use your name thoughtlessly.
Lord, I hate those who hate you;
I hate those who rise up against you.
I feel only hate for them;
they are my enemies."
Yeahh David, I get this emotion. Completely.
But God doesn't let David stay in his anger.
This last part may very well be the hardest for me. PRAY FOR THE PERPETRATORS.
Jesus did.
He said, "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do."
Pray that their hearts would soften to the sickness that they have.
There are many of them. We can only get to them through prayer.
Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."
God can change their hearts.
3,287 people are sold every day.
My bracelet says 'Passion for change' on it. And this world desperately needs a passion for change.
Don't quench this knowledge. It's heavy. It's messy. But God is bigger.
Lydia, thank you. It is excruciatingly difficult to look darkness in the eye...when we feel we do not have to do so. But as you say, many have no choice, they are faced with it each day, and we must be their voice before the world, and before Heaven. Dr. Blakley says that we are the ones that must run into the darkness and keep running in. Your words convict me, because I usually look away--because I feel so small, and it does not seem to make a difference. Thank you for letting God use you to convict such as myself.
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