Whatever you do..

So because of Michael and Shadi lecturing me, I'm writing another post. :)

I've been thinking about so much lately. Trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, and especially what is means to follow Jesus in the ETS environment.

The thing that frustrates me the most is the complacency of the small circle we are in. I gave a speech today about the Clean Water Crisis and why we should get involved. It was hard for me to look at some of the faces staring back at me as I was talking.

In their faces, I saw my face. My face when I categorized something into a "social justice issue," instead of realizing that thousands are really people are dying everyday. People who bleed, sweat, cry, and laugh. I thought back to all of the times I had seen only a global issue, and not a precious three-year-old dying girl.

A few days ago I was thinking back to a missions trip I went on last summer. It was to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the poorest county in the United States. That trip broke my heart. Seeing the little kids who had obviously been abused come to the recreation center to learn to laugh again. (If you want to see a blog about this trip go to my facebook, it's titled "Who will give us love?")
I thought about how that was the first time the poor began to have faces. Before it was just "the homeless" or "the desperate". I'd never known anyone homeless or desperate or that hungry. But when I saw the faces of the children something inside me changed. Something broke me, and yet gave me hope.

Now a portrait of one of the girls, named Morning Star, sits on the table beside my bed.
And everytime I look at it I can't help wondering, How can we get people to understand this?

The Lakota Sioux Indians have gone through so much injustice, but their voice is lost in the consumeristic culture of America. No one can hear them. And that's a shame, because when they sing, and we begin to blend with them in harmony, the song is beautiful and it's a song of hope.

Have we forgotten the teachings of Jesus?
Have we gotten so caught up in "absolute truth" and "biblical worldviews" that we have forgotton our first love?
Have we decided that a relationship with God is just too hard and decided to pick our black and white Bibles back up?
Have we forgotton what it means to care, to love, to laugh, and to be FREE?

We are created to be free, but America will not give us the freedom we desire. We need to stop trying to compromise the American dream with the cross because that's not the way Jesus intended. He asked us to give up everything in order to follow Him.

Complacency is the most frightening place to be.

Don't be satified if things are not how they should be. Keep asking questions, keep discussing, but whatever you do don't become complacent.

And above all, love. Love with everything you have. And show that Jesus really meant what He said.