Woooowwww

Wow. Wow wow wow. It’s been a crazy two days. This week, the unit we’re focusing on is identity. This morning, we did an exercise where we were split into two groups, guys and girls. The girls listed off attributes and traits that they believe society sees as valuable or accepted in women. Then the guys filled in the rest of that list. We did the same kind of list for the men. It was really sad to see how we view each other and ourselves and how wrong that view is. From that, we got into three pairs of lines and faced each other, girls on one side and mostly guys on the other. The purpose of doing this was to see each other. Not just glance at each other or give them a 2 second look. But to really look into their eyes and see them. See them in the way that God sees them. For like 45 seconds. It was uncomfortable for sure. But at the same time it was so intimate and beautiful and pure. I feel like I was truly being seen and seeing others for the first time in my life. Even those who I have barely spoken to, we just saw each other and there was just such a connection. It was incredible.

Yesterday, our Not For Sale group had dinner together and watched the movie “Human Trafficking.” Man, it was brutal. Ahhh. Afterwards, we got into groups to pray about it and it was just super emotional. It’s crazy how incredibly blessed we are to have the lives we do. We have families who love us and we live in a safe place. We have opportunities to make our lives better and make our own decisions. Victims of human trafficking have none of these rights. They are dehumanized in the most vile of ways. We have no excuse to sit on the sidelines and let this happen, telling ourselves that someone else can take a stand. No. We have to take a stand. We have the time, resources, and power to do it. We just have to take that first step of faith. This is our 1850s African American slave trade; this is our Nazi Germany. Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were alive at that time? Would you have taken a stand against that injustice? Now is our time. I think I’m going to dedicate my life to this.

“Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.” 
-Barack Obama