Value.

"If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative I fear that some day you might find yourself believing that is all you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind, your humor, your kindness and your moral courage; these are the things I cherish so in you."
                                          
   -Marme speaking to Meg in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women (2000).

Fiction.

"The beauty of relationships, creation and many of the ordinary aspects of life can easily be overlooked unless your eye is trained to see beneath the first layer."
                                                   -Aaron Stern

Read the rest here: http://aaronstern.typepad.com/aaron_sterns_blog/2010/12/why-read-fiction.html

Remembering the Stolen

Slavery is one of the fastest growing business ventures in the modern era.  After reading an article about twelve years ago in a well-known magazine I found the facts strange; people were actually being bought and sold like cattle? People were being forced into prostitution, pornography and to work in erotic massage parlous? The startling article caused much debate in my ring of friends, people thought this was a conspiracy and these people wanted this lifestyle. There obviously must be a way to free these innocents, and actually show the reality of this evil, but how? Some marketing breakthroughs in the non-profit sector are revolutionizing the way solutions to this problem are approached.

Today the abolishment movement is in full swing. Well, should we say at least it has become a movement? There is massive push back as the realties of this atrocity are to unpalatable for the average American to question. This is something that is very real, it is happening and we need to face it, so to put an end to it, but first we have to understand it.

Modern slavery is a quickly growing enterprise. The Polaris Project is one of the chief organizations fighting against Human Trafficking. They define this abuse as such: “Human trafficking is the modern day practice of slavery. Also known as trafficking in persons, human trafficking comprises the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, based on the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation”. They are actively pursuing to abolish this type of slavery and have been since 2002.

Currently the average American is a consumer. Not only do people have full control over what TV shows they watch with the introduction of recorded TV, but also with social networking the ability to filter what you see has taken over. RSS feeders capture a massive amount of information, but only if you subscribe to the feed do you get wind of the information. The urge for people to cut out bad or negative information has reached an all time high in this post 9/11 world. This poses a problem for organization such as the Polaris Project to inform the masses. Basically if people do not want to hear the negative they are easily able to filter it out.

The need for information to adapt to the virtual reality that has become America is on the forefront of the abolishment movement. In the past the mindset of the social justice movement has been one of shock and awe. This type of marketing brings publicity, but has a very negative effect on the overall integrity of a corporation. A very cautious line has become the balancing act of these organizations ability to communicate a need. An impasse has been met: how do you speak about devastation and ruin to a people who don’t want to hear or feel it? How do you create a market for hurting people and sell it, to an overinflated America? The answer may be found in shoes.

In 2006 Blake Mycoskie started a company called TOMS shoes, initiating the One-for-One movement, “with every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need”. Blake understood the need, shoes, and saw a direct application to the issue. Give consumers something to buy, and also give them the opportunity to learn about the movement. Instead of trying to get people to give money to a fund, also give them something to buy into. When there is a tangible item that they have as a reminder they are more likely to care about any issue.

Social justice movements across the board are starting to crack into the tight fist of consumerism. One such organization is carving into the monster that is slavery one purse, scarf and wallet at a time. In-His-Steps International has started an outreach to young girls who have been sold into slavery. Sak Saum, the Khmer word for dignity and also the face of their organization reaching out to girls in need of restoration, is a based in Cambodia. Cambodia is a harsh place to be born, as a female slavery is illegal, but thriving here. There are unspeakable things being done to all different types of people here. Sak Saum provides young women who have been able to get out a safe haven; they are taught “education and vocational training, job skills and development, counseling based on Christian principles, health and nutrition education, future enterprise opportunities”.

In-His-Steps International has a comprehensive approach to helping young men and women:

We recognize that treating the symptoms of poverty is not enough: true compassion ministers to the needs of the individual. Our mission is to restore lives in every way – physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, spiritually and socially. Each woman who enters the Sak Saum program is offered unconditional love and the resources she needs to become independent and successful.

Part of the rehabilitation they take part in is learning how to sew. These young women are given a skill that will support them after they leave the program. Taking after the “One-For-One” model they are selling the final product with proceeds going straight into the ministry. The attention to detail they have is exquisite; the product when finished is shipped to America to be sold at house parties, conferences, and is also available online.

Buy a purse; help free a girl in slavery. The implications of this type of social impact are moving quickly through the world. This is changing how people decide on what they are spending their money on. Where does every penny toward this necklace go? By buying from a certain company am I actually promoting slavery? This type of marketing is creating a real solution, to real problems. It gives people a good feeling when they purchase a product, and actually helps those in need.

TOMS shoes just reported their shoe drop campaign to have reached the one million mark. Sak Saum just recently celebrated the life of a new baby born to a recovering mother, who has finally found her dignity. With purpose and intention these organizations are effecting change. There is a new direction that the fight for social justice is taking on.

 There can be nothing worse than a heart so broken it cannot weep. There is no feeling so low as the abyss of loneliness. There is no cut so deep as the wound of sexual abuse. For millions in the world we live in, this is a part of day-to-day life. They are not the orphans or the widows, they are not the lost; they are the stolen. They could be anyone; they could be your neighbor or the little girl next door. “They” are modern slaves. This atrocity is also known as Human Trafficking and it is closer to you than you may want to believe. This atrocity must stop.

Some links that will inform:

www.ihsionline.org/saksaum/

www.polarisproject.org

www.ijm.org

www.love146.org

www.notforsalecampaign.org

www.humantraffickingclinic.org

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SUSPICIOUS PLEASE REPORT IT! This is not simply a foreign issue. People are being trafficked right before your very eyes. If you see something please do your part. Call the police or 1(866)455-5075 This is the Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking (CoNEHT). www.coloradocrimevictims.org/human_trafficking.html

Buy fair trade! Every dollar spent is like a small rudder on a vast ship that will effect the direction of consumerism. You could be choosing to support slavery with your pennies. Check out www.Free2Work.org for more information on how to spend for freedom. 

Boxes Come in all Shapes and Sizes

Stop trying to think outside of the box, for by doing so you are inserting yourself squarely inside someone else’s. Maybe it is time to embrace your own box. Love it, live it and for once become an expert at something. What would happen if you became excellent at that one thing? What would the world look like if you worked with others who were excellent components of a huge structure of full boxes? How would you be living today differently if you were preparing for this team? You have talents, use them don’t run from them. You have a vision - nurture it! You have a destiny, stop trying to live mine. I see a future where drafting a team of experts will change the world, are you ready? What a vision! But this is not a foreign idea, this is the Church. Are you engaged? Are you willing? Time is on the move and before you think twice all you will notice is the sound it makes as it passes you by, or worse the taunts you hear from yesteryear. Step up, and be simply who you were made to be. Engage with others who are doing the same, community will never be so sweet.

The City Sparkles Tonight

It has been awhile.

I think I say that often…more often than I should in fact.

So without further ado, a blog post.

I wish I could make each one of these worthy of printing, but I feel that the stage is already set for a bit more of a rambling venue, so ramble on I shall.

This is my most favorite time of year. I ever so enjoy the general display of holiday cheer. I love the way the temperature fluctuates from a sticky hot 70 to a breath stealing near zero chill. There is something about the attitude of the people around me, be it the lady who flipped me off because I tried to pass her when she was going 15 under the speed limit, to the over zealous “Black-Friday” shoppers that will literally kill to get their deals or those lovelies who are singing Christmas carols as the little kiddos ring their buzzers for some Halloween candy. I love the smells of cinnamon and nutmeg, cloves and the taste of eggnog and pumpkin. Darling outfits coupled with layers and layers of beautifully stitched sweaters and stockings, fuzzy warm jackets, balanced of course with leggings and legwarmers. I love the boots and the gloves, hats, mittens, scarves and other bits of winter gear that keep me toasty during my hour long commute in the frigid mornings. I love the way the frost bites the tree trunks before the sun comes out to melt it away. I love the crunching sound that the snow makes under foot as I walk my path. There is so much to love, but the most treasured thing about my own holiday experience, are the lights. I went to the grocery store after dark the other night, just so I could enjoy the way the lights dance off of one another.

It is magical.

Watching the twinkles and the sparkles brings a deep stirring in my heart. This stirring and movement is often further away than I would like to admit and it is sometimes so soft that I barely see it. This ebb and flow of my soul haunts me. It causes deep introspection and will always cause a spiritual stutter in my day. It is my affections being stirred by my Lover. You see I am learning so very much as I am re-entering into a sober society. My heart is a minefield of idols. Things that seem trifling, but upon a second glance are rather rooted in my life. Swaying my life like a little rudder on a ship. I have so many things that steal my time, my love, my romance, my purity and my livelihood. The one that sits most proudly and claims the largest landmass of my heart, is me. I am my own worst nightmare. The desires of my soul have misdirected my attention, my time, my finances and even my love. There is a simple slur to the beat of my heart at all times. I am so broken, and in this I am limiting the very nature of God in my own life. As I try to differentiate the between necessity, need and want I see that I will often replace a necessity with a want. Let me spell it out for you. I would rather clothe my body, which will fade away than feed my soul that is eternal. I would rather do my makeup in the morning than eat breakfast. I would rather sleep in than carve out time to pray or read my bible. Sadly this is not the end of it. I keep my money tight against those in need, but am quick to justify a needless or mindless purchase. I would rather pine for a physical lover that may never be, than to realize the One who is right before me. Oh selfish and brutal heart how you betray me. What evil you are capable of, how quickly I can fall for you!

Ah, but all is not lost.

And this dear friends is the True sparkle in the darkness. We are saved. We are not lost, “all we like sheep have gone astray” - but He has come to save us. The lights strung out in front of houses are a reminder of the shooting star that brought three wandering kings to the foot of the King of Kings, about two thousand years ago. A tiny baby born to bear the flesh we are burdened with, born as man, yet fully God, to redeem our hopeless state. What a difference this moment is, my evil heart was purchased, these chains are no longer mine to carry, these idols are no longer mine to battle. This heart in all its shabbiness is His and He has already won. So as I purvey the landscape of my soul, I see places that seem dark and doubtful, but I know that that excavation is not mine to begin, nor mine to worry over. My heart is mastered by a beautiful Love that has already won.

The Perfect Fit

Anyone remember the melodic intuition post a bit ago? It was a rambling on music, it was also a revelation on community. I found that I have an issue singing the melody and need others around me to sing it so I can fit with them in harmony. So that I can be a better me, so they can be a better them. 

Today at church I realized that this body of believers needs me. Everyone there sings melody. I fit. Perfectly. I have never had this feeling at a church or in a group of people, ever. I have always felt that everyone around me was fumbling to fit in, or to fit out. Either way no one has truly needed me. I have surrounded myself with people who do not need me as I do them. They have community, they have ministry and they have others who complete their melodies better than I can.

I am learning that I need people, community, church, friends, who need me. People who do not feel sorry for me, but people who actually sound better when I am with them. In music if you fit the wrong people together in an ensemble you will get a terrible, horrid sound. It is not that the folks are bad singers; it is that they sound brash together. There is a sweet spot of musical interlocking; when you put two people who can anticipate each others movement, strength and weakness, there will ear candy abound.

I have found my sweet spot. I have found a community of people whose heart beat like my own. I can make them sound better than if they were singing in solo. This I feel is what church might actually be. It’s a nestling. It’s a convergence. It’s a perfectly anticipated duet. This, my friends is beautiful thing: I belong.