“I like to play and dance just like you but they have suppressed my heart only to work. I like to learn and laugh just like you but they have silenced my soul only to work. I like to imagine and dream just like you but they have removed my creativity only to work. I like football and cricket just like you but they have busied my hands only to work. They have busied my hands for work and no play so that your extravagant clothes will fancy others each day. They have suppressed my days to long labor hours so that you will be satisfied in the skirt with the flowers. It is an unfortunate exchange that you and I possess… As you increase in materials, I depend on them less. -Thoughts of a sweatshop child”
I wrote this poem in India as my mind was flooded with questions. Some of the same thoughts travel through my mind this Good Friday. At the crossroads of confusion, I find myself becoming angry as I hear a child behind me yell at her mother because she refused to buy candy in the checkout line.
Today, I returned from Nicaragua. I was a part of a strategic missions trip with my church. The primary goal of the trip was to collaborate and brainstorm with the locals about effective micro-financing, teaching, community organizing and fund raising. Managua, Nicaragua has an unemployment rate of 70% which plunges many into starvation and high risk living conditions. I knew before leaving that these types of trips often change me more than anyone I come in contact with. The people of Nicaragua will live the same life long after I depart. I, however, was once again revolutionized and empowered.
Will the children, who live on one meal a day in the dump, receive justice? Will they one day have a life where their tummies will no longer rumble? Will their mothers and fathers live to see the day that picking through trash is no longer necessary to survive? My mind spins and my heart races. Why have I seen these horrid glimpses of such global disasters? Why have I been given the privilege to take a street child to the sandy shores of Nicaragua as he experiences the waves for the first time?
I’m not sure why I feel an overwhelming sense of privilege and honor when granted these beautiful opportunities. I’ll never understand why orphans are starving this very day in both India and Nicaragua. Although my mind is flooded with questions, I’ve once again committed to discovering the answers. I am confident that my Lord died and rose again on the third day. I saw Him this week in the tired and dirty faces of orphans and widows. These people that posess a hope that I have never seen before. It is a hope that is nonsensical and contagious. It is a hope that is dangerous. It is a hope that spreads to me, the screaming girl at the check out line.
Be encouraged and blessed this Easter holiday.
1 John 3:16-20 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no compassion on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”
