Thoughts after an interview with an anti- sex trafficking agency.
Few things shake the teners of my faith more than the gross abuse of young children, and the gross experiences encountered by men and women forced into slavery.
Neither groups of people had a choice; rather they were victims of their circumstances - whether they be familial or political.
I've grappled with this before during my work at the Department for Child Protection and I'm grappling with it now as I process the interview I've just had with a worker from an international sex trafficking agency that provides social and therapeutic services to trafficked prostitutes.
How can one comprehend an 11 year old child who puts her hand up to prositute herself so that her 9 sisters can eat, so not starve to death? The literal laying down of her life for her family?
How does one comprehend that traffickers aren't only rotten mongrels just trying to make a buck for their own pleasures, but they are also aunties who make agreements with parents to sacrifice one child in the family so that all 20 of her cousins can eat and go to school?
These children's lives are literally broken and destroyed by the sex industry from thereon after.
These children and adults are victims of poverty; forced to make decisions that we in the Western World haven't ever had to consider.
How can God allow this to happen to thousands of children all around the world?
My theology is neither deep nor broad enough to answer these questions.
But as I bikerode home tonight, I realised that there is one thing I do know.
God HATES it.
While He allows these things to happen according to His sovereign rule and reign over the universe, His soverign commands are BEING BROKEN by us human beings.
And he HATES it.
The scriptures command us to LOVE each other, to not abuse each other, to SHARE with eachother, not to hoard resources to ourselves.
Nations should NOT be in poverty, people should NOT have to sell family members to survive.
These gross abuses of human rights break His commandments to love our neighbors (within families and between nations) and God's heart moves with ANGER and with GRIEF when man's hearts are hardened to commit such indecent acts (Mark 3.5) and children are thus forced to experience such devastating lives. Hebrews 4.15 even talks about Christ being our merciful High Priest who sympathizes with our weakness and pain.
I believe God created the little children who turn into young adults with severely damaged bodies, minds and wills. But the sin was not His, it was ours, back in the garden of Eden when we chose enmity from God.
And we still choose emnity from God. Nations refuse to take up the command to love God and to love people, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to share our resources ...all of which would create the eutopic world peace that, in my subject's opinion today, is what's needed to erradicate poverty and human trafficking.
And so we are handed over to the consequences of our actions.
The fault does not lie with God, it's with us.
We are called to love. To then forgive. To then share. But we don't.
Because we can't. We are too human.
We can't do it by ourselves. We are too selfish, self centered, too biologically determined to be greedy and prideful.
But thank God for Jesus Christ. Loving us, mankind - fallen, broken and sick as we are - God sent His Son to die as a penalty for all our sins and so that we could be made new and do new created things that are otherwise impossible.
We can become as we were originally created to be. Loving beings in love with God.
And that's where the answer lies. Because God IS LOVE. (1 John 4.8)
If we accept Jesus, we recieve God and His ability to love. And to do all that love encompasses.
It's not done by our own self will.
In Jesus, a supernatural transaction takes place.
We recieve the ability to love. The ability to love our neighbors as ourselves. The ability forgive. The ability to share.
If we love God, we can properly love people.
We can end poverty. We can give each person their basic human rights.
So I conclude this blog post that I can never shake my fist at God for the world's problems; he HATES it too. We are the ones who created this mess.
The heavenly Father's heart breaks at the social climate of this world and He wants it to change more than I do.
He hears the cry of every broken, crushed will and is close to every broken hearted person who calls out (Psalm 34.18).
So I will partner with Him, because I am powerless to do it by myself. I will take up my calling to love Him and to love others so that somehow,
through me,
His love, His peace, His restoration, His Kingdom so to speak, can break forth like the crack of dawn into this world.
And maybe just a little bit of heaven will come to earth.
Neither groups of people had a choice; rather they were victims of their circumstances - whether they be familial or political.
I've grappled with this before during my work at the Department for Child Protection and I'm grappling with it now as I process the interview I've just had with a worker from an international sex trafficking agency that provides social and therapeutic services to trafficked prostitutes.
How can one comprehend an 11 year old child who puts her hand up to prositute herself so that her 9 sisters can eat, so not starve to death? The literal laying down of her life for her family?
How does one comprehend that traffickers aren't only rotten mongrels just trying to make a buck for their own pleasures, but they are also aunties who make agreements with parents to sacrifice one child in the family so that all 20 of her cousins can eat and go to school?
These children's lives are literally broken and destroyed by the sex industry from thereon after.
These children and adults are victims of poverty; forced to make decisions that we in the Western World haven't ever had to consider.
How can God allow this to happen to thousands of children all around the world?
My theology is neither deep nor broad enough to answer these questions.
But as I bikerode home tonight, I realised that there is one thing I do know.
God HATES it.
While He allows these things to happen according to His sovereign rule and reign over the universe, His soverign commands are BEING BROKEN by us human beings.
And he HATES it.
The scriptures command us to LOVE each other, to not abuse each other, to SHARE with eachother, not to hoard resources to ourselves.
Nations should NOT be in poverty, people should NOT have to sell family members to survive.
These gross abuses of human rights break His commandments to love our neighbors (within families and between nations) and God's heart moves with ANGER and with GRIEF when man's hearts are hardened to commit such indecent acts (Mark 3.5) and children are thus forced to experience such devastating lives. Hebrews 4.15 even talks about Christ being our merciful High Priest who sympathizes with our weakness and pain.
I believe God created the little children who turn into young adults with severely damaged bodies, minds and wills. But the sin was not His, it was ours, back in the garden of Eden when we chose enmity from God.
And we still choose emnity from God. Nations refuse to take up the command to love God and to love people, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to share our resources ...all of which would create the eutopic world peace that, in my subject's opinion today, is what's needed to erradicate poverty and human trafficking.
And so we are handed over to the consequences of our actions.
The fault does not lie with God, it's with us.
We are called to love. To then forgive. To then share. But we don't.
Because we can't. We are too human.
We can't do it by ourselves. We are too selfish, self centered, too biologically determined to be greedy and prideful.
But thank God for Jesus Christ. Loving us, mankind - fallen, broken and sick as we are - God sent His Son to die as a penalty for all our sins and so that we could be made new and do new created things that are otherwise impossible.
We can become as we were originally created to be. Loving beings in love with God.
And that's where the answer lies. Because God IS LOVE. (1 John 4.8)
If we accept Jesus, we recieve God and His ability to love. And to do all that love encompasses.
It's not done by our own self will.
In Jesus, a supernatural transaction takes place.
We recieve the ability to love. The ability to love our neighbors as ourselves. The ability forgive. The ability to share.
If we love God, we can properly love people.
We can end poverty. We can give each person their basic human rights.
So I conclude this blog post that I can never shake my fist at God for the world's problems; he HATES it too. We are the ones who created this mess.
The heavenly Father's heart breaks at the social climate of this world and He wants it to change more than I do.
He hears the cry of every broken, crushed will and is close to every broken hearted person who calls out (Psalm 34.18).
So I will partner with Him, because I am powerless to do it by myself. I will take up my calling to love Him and to love others so that somehow,
through me,
His love, His peace, His restoration, His Kingdom so to speak, can break forth like the crack of dawn into this world.
And maybe just a little bit of heaven will come to earth.
Beautiful Kate! Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteTo look directly into the heart of darkness and not flinch...wow...this is Faith, this is Trust. It is so much easier and more convenient so simply look the other way...but if we wish to be fully alive we cannot pretend. Be prepared to find Christ in unexpected places. Courage to you sister.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte x