One of the movies that hit me like a ton of bricks was called "Born in the Brothels." It is a documentary about Calcutta, India and the children that are born into the brothels. A 'brothel,' as defined by Wikipedia is "a whorehouse; an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution." In Calcutta the brothels were not simply a house. They were a huge apartment-like structure with hundreds of women, generation after generation.
There's more. Want to know the worst part; the part that broke my heart? The children that were born into these brothels. The CHILDREN. Born, not by choice, into a place that they can't get out of. They know nothing else. So that by age 14 these girls are in the same line of work as their mothers and grandmothers: selling their bodies to stay alive. Mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual chains. As far as they know, the 'brothels' are what the whole world is like. They know nothing else.
Those children could be super-star athletes, doctors, teachers, artists, lawyers, CEO's.....
But they will never be those things. They aren't allowed to dream like we are.
What does this have to do with me? with you? with us?
Understanding the Gospel is crucial to understanding what is really going on in the world. We have simplified and molded the Gospel to look just the way we want it to…but we miss some of it. We think that we just need Jesus and we are “saved” and that’s it. Well I hate to break it to you, but it’s not about ME and it’s not about YOU. It’s about God and how He wants to use us to build His Kingdom. And by ‘build His Kingdom’ I basically mean change the world. It’s not about us and our salvation…it’s more about what we are doing NOW while we are here on earth. Our world has enough hurt and hate. As Ghandi said, “YOU must be the change you want to see in the world.”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s important that we first know Jesus and understand that we are sinners and He died so that we might live. What’s even more important, though, is that we understand that it doesn’t stop there. It’s not about “getting better” or “achieving success” for God; we don’t have to earn anything…it’s about loving because we understand His love for us. We must start to live like Jesus and have a heart like Jesus and begin to see the world through His eyes.
One of the speakers at Project gave us this analogy to what “changing the world” looks like: IT'S LIKE TRYING TO EMPTY THE OCEAN USING ONLY A THIMBLE.
Talk about discouraging. Well I guess I will just give up now, what’s the point…right? Wrong. That’s the attitude that most people take but, that’s also what I was just talking about with the whole ‘understanding the Gospel.’ We like to be selfish and justify it with that fact that “I can’t make a difference.” Take the brothels, for example. Look at all the brokenness going on there...and then realize that is only one small place on earth. There is so much hurt going on, all over the place.
Let me say it again: it’s not about ME and it’s not about YOU. It seems hopeless. As individuals, we will barely make a dent in the big picture. We will hit walls and adversity.
But we have a choice: Will we be part of the cure or part of the disease? In everything we do, will we bring a little bit of heaven to earth or a little bit of hell?
No, I might not be able to directly help those children in Calcutta. And no, I can't answer why I was born in Westlake, OH and why those little girls were born into a whorehouse. But I can tell you that, because of where I was born and because of the resources and abilities I have now, I am going to do what I can, where I'm at. I am going to do this with LOVE. In hopes that other people will see that and begin to understand and to follow as I have chosen to follow.
Let me grab my thimble...I choose to bring heaven.
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