A Call to Action

Last night I watched the documentary "Branded", a new documentary by a guy from The Element. It exposes the sex trafficking business in the Phoenix area, mostly girls under the age of 18.

I wept through the entire thing.

I couldn't help but think the whole time about how blessed my sisters and I were to be born into the life that we were. And about how these girls live just miles from me, with absolutely no hope. About how it's really easy for me to leave my nice apartment, wearing nice clothes, and go sing nice songs proclaiming Truth, hope, life, and still walk away many times unchanged and even unmotivated to really live out the Gospel. The reason Jesus came: "To preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoner."

I shouldn't speak for anyone else who viewed the film, but I have to say that I left with strong conviction last night that if I do nothing...if I walk away unchanged and unmoved, than I am nothing but an "educated, self-inflated Pharisee".

So what's the next step? I'm still figuring that out. But I do know that I will do something. If that means giving money , donating my time, finding ways to create awareness about injustice in my own backyard, I'll do it. I know I don't blog very often, but I'm writing so that you, few readers, will hold me accountable. I don't want to forget and continue to live out my life in a fabricated, blissful ignorance.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Living a life in the mundane

I read today on CNN.com that the 21-year marriage of Spiderman and MJ has finally come to an end. Now, I am not an avid Spiderman and I've never even picked up a single comic book, but this struck me as really sad and I think it serves as some real insight into our modern-day culture.



Essentially, the two are breaking up to "add some excitement" to the story. I mean, what can possibly be exciting about the ins and outs of a 21-year marriage? Great television drama is not made up of happily married, functional and healthy marriages. Which is why we love Grey's Anatomy. What makes for better drama than a bunch of hot, wildly successful and single surgeons who switch romantic partners like they're playing a game of Hot Potato? Monogamy really is no fun. Where else but prime-time televison are we actually hoping Dr. McDreamy will leave his beautiful wife to be with the young, exciting intern? I'm sad to say I'm even part of the viewing audience.



But this isn't about Grey's Anatomy. This is about the propensity of human beings to jump from one new thing to the next hoping to find the thing that will ultimately satisfy them at their core. And about how in our culture, the "everyday" is just boring. When in reality, the majority of our life is made up by the "everyday". We get up, go to work, drink our coffee, eat lunch at the same places, go home, workout, eat dinner, etc etc. Not really all that exciting by some standards and so we look to Dr. McDreamy, or Spiderman or some other fictional character to make our mundane lives seem more exciting.



The reality (and perhaps saddest part) is that the true extent of living life in that way is never explored on t.v. Can you imagine actually living the life of any of those people? When the show is over, perhaps Meredith has shed a tear and we've empathized for a moment over the break-up (for the 17th time) of her and Dr. McDreamy, but by the next week we're back to her happy self-involved little life where she'll just find someone new to keep her content. And who really wants to see her devastated and not getting out of bed for weeks? Or even worse, going back to a semi-normal life with no love interest? Horrors!

I think this breeds a lot of discontent with people who have an expectation that life will constantly be dynamic and exciting. Real life is actually rather boring an unexciting for the most part. We go on great vacations but eventually we do have to come back. We plans for months to have a beautiful wedding ceremony but marriage is really about the 50-years after the Big Day. Life can't be reduced to a 60-minute television show that only shows the highlights.

This is all really just to say that I want to be better at being content with life in the everyday. With persevering and being faithful in the areas of my life that I've committed. I think true contentment lies in just that. Not jumping from one life change to the next, but really finding peace in the mundane.

I'm tired of words

I've been thinking lately about how much of what we do every day revolves around words. About the ability to put our thoughts into something meaningful using a common language. More than just our thoughts really. Who we are is largely summarized by the words we use. We talk to express frustration, sadness, joy, confusion, despair, excitement, etc. I've heard people characterize their best date ever as one where they talked for 5, 6, 7 hours straight. Whether we like it or not, we live and die by the words that come out of our mouth. Which may seem unfair, at times. I wish I had a nickel for everytime I have said something and immediately wished I hadn't said it. I am the girl, after all, who actually told a customer at Starbucks that I didn't recognize him with his pants on.

Trust me, there's a story there. But the point is, being the flawed creatures that we are, it just doesn't seem right that so much of who we are to the world is summed up by the way we speak. It is no wonder then that Proverbs tells us that "the tongue has the power of life and death" and in James that "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless". Worthless!

This all brings me to my big (drumroll please) 2008 New Year's Resolution!! It's time to rein in the tongue. More specifically, my tongue. While in the midst of deep self-reflection on my wild and raucous New Year's Eve (ha!), I began thinking about the ways that I probably hurt people with my witty and oftentimes biting sarcasm. In all honesty, it's sometimes one of my favorite things about myself...but I never want to be sarcastic at the expense of someone else's feelings. If I can just remember that who I am is defined by what I say, it does me no good to say "Oh, I didn't mean to be rude. If they know me, they'll understand I'm just joking around."

A lot of it comes back to this whole having a "gentle and quiet spirit" thing that I have a love-hate relationship with. And when I say love-hate, I really mean mostly hate. I've always thought that because I'm sort of this sassy, sarcastic person that means I'm not a "gentle and quiet spirit". And while I know I am who God made me (and God don't make no mistakes!), that doesn't give me the right to sort of blaze forward with a sort of Wild West-John Wayne-Go Ahead, Make My Day attitude. But cultivating a gentle and quiet spirit doesn't mea I lose a sense of humor either.

So there it is. 2008 is about taming my tongue, about learning what it means to have a gentle and quiet spirit, while maintaining the unique image of God that lies in me.