Work...

We've been back for two days and I have to say that my body clock isn't quite right just yet. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't sleep, so I did what anyone else would do in this situation - I watched a documentary. Actually, I finished watching a documentary that I started a couple of nights ago. It's called Food,Inc. and it chronicles the sad state that the food industry is in as a result of convoluted corporate and government issues. They showed the harsh treatment, not only of the technologically engineered plants and animals that we eat every day, but also of the workers who carry out the harvesting, slaughtering, and preparing of the food before it hits the supermarket. Scary stuff to say the least.

After the documentary, I went to the grocery store and did my best to shop in a way that matched the conviction I felt after watching Food, Inc. I don't know why, but doing these two things broke my heart all over again, thousands of miles away from the poverty and trafficking issues we've been walking through during the last 2 weeks. This world is so very broken, and the earth seems to be this disgusting place where people have become just as much of a resource as anything that we draw out of the ground. Once the fields and wells are sucked dry, we move onto the next one. Once the people are used up, we cast them aside and look for the next ones to help us achieve...well, whatever it is we're trying so hard to achieve.

After Jesus fed the five thousand and walked on water, the group of people followed Him from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. He knows the people have come for another miracle, for another meal. They want to use Him up, because He appears to be such a valuable resource. But He cautions them not to work for temporary resources that spoil, but for things that endure eternally. Then they ask Him, "ok, then, how do we do the work of God?" To which Jesus replies, "The work of God is this: to believe in the One He sent." (John 5-6)

Sometimes, it's hard work to believe. It's hard to believe that the Chief Shepherd is leading us to a better land where sex trafficking will be no more, where poverty will cease and people will treat each other the way we were intended to. Today we work hard to believe that God is changing things for the better. We work hard to believe that He cares, even though the outlook seems bleak at times. Today is a day where the work of believing seems a little harder than usual. Please continue to work with us as we continue believing that God is changing the lives of at least 2 girls and their families today.