His Love Endures Forever

At Central Christian College one of my early morning classes was Theology. 7:30 a.m. is a great time discuss the ins and outs of theodicy, anthropology, hamartiology, Christology, pneumatology, snoozology, and soteriology, just to name a few. (Here's a link to Wikipedia if you want to know what all of those mean.) My professor was very educated and had a lot of good stuff to say. He also had a deep, sonorous voice that after going to bed around 2 or 3 made it easy to slip back into la-la-land. It was a beautiful place full of doves and trinitarian symbols and seas of glass.

DJ Snooze's Afternoon Snooz'ology

The biggest project we had to do in Theology was to write our own creed. We looked at the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed and some others that I cannot remember. I love old stuff like that so I really enjoyed reading the creeds. Coming up with our own did not seem so hard. A one page paper on my belief system is a piece of cake. I just have to use the right flow and poetic resonance for it to be beautiful. The hard part of this task was the ten page paper to support why I said what I believe. What does it mean when I say "I believe in the Resurrection"? The report was difficult but I learned a lot from it. I had to find Scripture to back up what I said. It really made me stop and evaluate why I believe what I believe.

Recently, I was reading Psalm 136. It has always felt like somewhat of a boring read because every other line says, "His love endures forever." This time as I was reading it God pretty much said, "I keep repeating it so that it will get through your thick skull!" I was struggling to see His love and this smacked me over the head, so I decided to right my own psalm as a reminder. Just like writing the creed for class this is my statement of faith. As you read it think about what God's love is and what it looks like to you.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.
        His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the King of all things.
        His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Awesome Father:
        His love endures forever.
who showers His love on the broken and bruised,
       His love endures forever.
who hurts for our sins.
       His love endures forever.
Praise to the God of grace:
       His love endures forever.
who forgives us while we are still in sin,
       His love endures forever.
who holds nothing against us,
       His love endures forever.
and believes wholeheartedly in us.
       His love endures forever.
Praise to the One who says 'You Are More,'
       His love endures forever.
Who cries out our worth,
       His love endures forever.
and says 'I love you, always.'
       His love endures forever.
'You are my child, my beautiful creation.'
       His love endures forever.
Praise the one who offers redemption,
       His love endures forever.
who restores hearts and rebuilds marriages,
       His love endures forever.
who provides for all our needs.
       His love endures forever.
Glory to the Father who holds us in the dark,
       His love endures forever.
who speaks words of comfort and peace to our broken heart,
       His love endures forever.
who lifts us up when we cannot stand,
       His love endures forever.
who gives us wings excel.
       His love endures forever.
All glory to Him who sits on the throne,
       His love endures forever.
who came and died and rose;
       His love endures forever.
whose blood as shed for our sins.
       His love endures forever.
Thank you Father for living and loving.
       His love endures forever.
Thank you for never letting go.
       His love endures forever.
Thank you for crying, "You are more!"
       His love endures forever!

If you have experienced God's enduring love please share your story in the comments below. We all need a reminder from time to time that He is never letting go.

How 12 Years a Slave ruined my date

Recently, my wife and I went on a date, which sadly is a rare occurrence. Elizabeth had really been wanting to see "12 Years a Slave" especially after all the buzz it got at the Oscars. We missed it in the regular theater, but thankfully we have a second run theater here. After a long day of trying to complete my honey-do list we gathered up the kids, dropped them off at Grandma's and headed to dinner. We had a nice quick meal with a few laughs before heading to the Palace. It was nice to just chat and not have to talk over Ms. Megaphone and Ms. Inquisitive (strange how everyone thinks my children are so quiet).

My wife and I both knew this was probably going to be an emotional movie. Elizabeth apologized in advance for laughing at my more than likely tears. I contemplated the joys of theater popcorn and all the flavor powders you can put on it. I decided next time I would bring a small Tupperware container (anything with round lids are spill-proof!) that I could dump some flavors in. That way, partway through the tub of popcorn I can sprinkle that magical dust on it again. (You know what I am talking about movie-goers.)

By the time the movie ended I did not care about popcorn flavors, or being a good date, or going to get ice cream after. I just wanted to go home, hide under a blanket, and cry. I will not give away too much but the moment that Patsy was whipped I had to force myself to stay in my seat and watch. My body was shaking as tears ran down my face. Nothing in my life seemed to matter. My bits of trivia that I will randomly spout, my love of sweets, sitting in the shade reading a book. It all seemed so pointless. How could so much atrocity have existed? How could people not see them as fellow human beings? It is unfathomable.

I love Civil War history. Even saying that now bothers me a little bit. I like reading about battles and generals and what life was like in the 1860's army. Unfortunately, the very thing I love is an "effect" of something I despise, slavery. I remember watching "Amistad" in eighth grade and being heartbroken by the conditions on the slaver ships. "12 Years a Slave" took me to another level entirely. I know the comparison has been made by others already but when the movie ended I had that hollow feeling like at the end of "The Passion of the Christ" but worse--because it is not over!

The Civil War has ended. Blacks and whites have equal rights. Slavery is illegal but it is not over. It is not gone. Maybe whips are not employed, but people are still suffering, still being oppressed by others. Over the past few years this knowledge has slowly leaked out into our culture. We call it by a different name today but is the same thing, human trafficking.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or removal of organs."

The legaleze of that is dizzy-ing, but it does a good job of covering all the bases. Human trafficking is a difficult industry to track because it is so secretive. Someone might work on a farm and say "yes, I get a fair wage" out of fear from their master if they tell the truth. Statistics range from 20 million to 30 million people in some form of slavery today. Wichita, where I live, supposedly has a lot of people trafficked through it. Most of this is in the sex industry. Our ignorance says, "People are in prostitution because they want to make good money." Unfortunately, the truth is, many of them are runaways that have been entrapped and now cannot find a way out.

This problem is huge! There are more slaves now than at any other time in history. Recently, Kevin Austen of the Set Free movement came to speak at our church. He spoke quite a bit about what we buy. Sadly, so much of our clothing and our food is made from slavery. Cotton, silk, coffee, chocolate, sugar, pre-cut flowers, tomatoes. The list goes on and on. Listening to Kevin talk it felt like the only way to not support slavery was to make your own clothes from the cotton up and grow your own food. This is an impossible proposal.

What if we changed our buying habits?

My sister-in-law, Rebecca, has been doing this for some years now even if the rest of the family made fun of her. She does not eat chocolate or drink coffee unless it is Fair Trade. This can be difficult. More than once she has had to turn down something delicious, but her conviction is stronger than her desire for those things.  I am finally coming around to her way of thinking, except that it is Easter and there is so many Reese's and Cadbury Eggs to be had.

How do we fix this? How do we stand against so much oppression. One person cannot change this. Frederick Douglass could not end slavery by himself. It took and ever growing network of people to spread the message of freedom for the captives and ultimately a war. We cannot go to war to end this with guns and bombs because it is everywhere.

But we can say "No More!"

We can stop using chocolate, coffee, sugar unless it is Fair Trade. This is more expensive, but this should not stop us. Just buy less of the those items.  Is another Milky Way for only $0.89 really worth the knowledge that somewhere a man, woman, or child is working in the fields dreaming of freedom. We can support  for companies that are endeavoring to produce their products conflict free, such as Levi's. Free2work.org is a great resource for finding out what companies are actually trying. We can keep our eyes and ears open for the hurting around us. Speak love into a child's life before they run away and get sucked into slavery. I will touch on this at a later date but stand against pornography. It is rife with sex trafficking and feeds the desire that sends people to women in prostitution. This whole industry is about money. If we can drastically reduce the cash flow to businesses that use slave labor, they will reevaluate their supply chain. But we each have to say, "No More!"

If you have not seen "12 Years a Slave," I strongly recommend it. The book is an excellent read and gives more details. In the coming months, I will write more about human trafficking. To find out more yourself, Google it! Some organizations that are making a stand are Not for Sale, Set Free, International Justice Mission, the United Nations, Amnesty International, Salvation Army, and ICT SOS. Elizabeth and I are also part of a start up called You Are More Ministries. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Please take the time to research this issue. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "If you want to see change in the world, you have to be the change." Will you join the modern day abolitionist movement and be the change?