Striving to be More Like Abraham

I mentioned in my very first post that my reason for creating this blog was to raise awareness around the issue of human trafficking.  I have had several promptings to sew dresses out of pillowcases.  And while I have followed the promptings, I must admit that I have been slow in responding to them.  Sadly, I have been more like Moses than Abraham.  Look at his response when God appeared to him in the burning bush and calls Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt:

• Moses gives God excuses why he isn't the one for the job. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?"   (Ex 3:11)
• He questions in fear "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?"  (Ex 4:1)
• Moses doubts his abilities and pleads with God  "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent..."   (Ex 4:10)

I too questioned my abilities. I struggled with wondering if another cause might be more beneficial.  Something that would be more direct in helping the girls.  But the reality is that if even one girl avoids being sold then my effort will be worth it.  If it comforts just one girl that has already been victimized then my effort will be worth it. 

So I told my husband that I was just going to set a date for the first event because if I didn't then it might never happen.  I would be letting fear hold me back from serving God. I am trying to follow Abrahams lead and step out in faith.  When God called Abraham in Gen 12:1, he asked Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father's household.  His only instructions for where Abraham was to go were "to the land I will show you."  Abrahams response in Gen 12:4 was to follow God's call wholeheartedly. No questions asked.  Scripture tells us that Abraham packed up ALL his possessions.  He was fully committed to following God and had no intentions of returning.  I am striving to be more like Abraham. 

So the date for the first event is set.  January 12th.  I am trusting God to bring the people, provide enough sewing machines and to make the event a success which will ultimately be for His glory.  I am nervous.  As I mentioned in my first post, I do not sew.  But I am trusting God and am clinging to this verse:

Romans 10:11  "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

When is enough enough?

It's happened.  Once again.  Same as it happens this time every year.  I love Christmas.  It's my favorite holiday.  But working in retail really puts it in a different perspective for me.  I work as a vendor for one of the major card companies and every year about this time it hits me and I get a little depressed.  It's because of all the "stuff."  I remember the first year I worked for them and the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I actually thought I may have to quit my job because it was bothering me so much.  I understand the theory behind what they do, but it bothers me never the less.  I know that the more places you have your Christmas items placed throughout the store the better your sales are going to be, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit excessive.  I remember setting 24' of Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving and then having to set up more in the seasonal aisle. Then still more in the "Christmas Shoppe."   More, More, More.   When is enough enough?  Christmas has evolved into such a consumer driven materialistic holiday.  Turn on the TV and you are bombarded with ads aimed at gaining your purchases this year.  We shop for things we don't really need.  More "stuff."  Much of which often get returned anyway. 

The amount of money America spends on Christmas is astounding. 
What America Spends on Christmas

America spends an average of $450 billion a year every Christmas. 10 percent of that is spent on lights and electricity.  We decorate our trees with lights and the outside of our houses with lights when nearly 1/4 of the worlds population doesn't even have access to electricity. It's hard for me to wrap my head around that.  How am I so blessed to have born in a country that is blessed beyond measure when so many in the world have so little? 

I see people with shopping carts loaded to the brim and I am left trying to reconcile the worlds view of Christmas driven by consumerism with the true meaning of Christmas where God became man in the form of tiny baby.  To reconcile the racing, shopping and busyness of Christmas today with the Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable. 

Picture the manger scene for a moment.  Every rendition of the manger scene paints us a picture of peace, tranquility and humbleness.  The lyrics to many Christmas songs also reflect this view...

Silent Night:
Silent Night, Holy Night
All is Calm
All is Bright

It came upon a Midnight Clear:
Peace on earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

O little town of Bethlehem:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;

Hark the heraId angels sing:
Hark the heraId angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled

Reflect on your shopping list, card list, baking list or your party list for a moment.  Picture yourself at the mall looking for parking or in the midst of a busy store shopping for one of those presents..  How do you feel? What words come to mind?  Perhaps these are some of the words you thought of:  Hectic, Rushed, Chaotic, Noisy, Busy, Stressed.

Now reflect on the words from the songs mentioned above: 
Peace, Gracious, Solemn Stillness, Angels singing, Still, Silent, Glory, Peace, Mercy, Reconciled. 

Two very different feelings.  Are you experiencing more of the first or the second?

Look with me at another Christmas song.
What Child is This
So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come, peasant, king, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone him.

At the heart of Christmas is LOVE.  God sent his only son because he loved us.

1 John 4:9-10  "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

We exchange gifts with one another as a token of our love.  It is a relection of the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.  These gifts were given in adoration and worship of the newborn King.

Incense - burnt in worship of God
Gold - symbol a king
Myrrh - a sign of being mortal - used for annointing the dead

On a side note: Did you know that the bible does not say there were 3 wise men? This is something assumed from the fact that 3 gifts were presented to the baby Jesus. (see Matthew 2:11)

 

3 Gifts.  Not carts full of gifts. 

 

In closing, let me bring you back to another Christmas song.  It's one of my favorites.

 

Joy to the World:

Joy to the world

The Lord is come

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart

Prepare Him room.

And heaven and nature sing.

 

This Christmas, in the midst of planning, shopping and baking I pray that you are taking time to prepare your heart.  Preparing room for Jesus.  To consider the wonder of the true meaning of Christmas.   The wonder of that Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable.  I pray you experience more peace and stillness and less noise and stress.


I have linked up with:
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home,  Mercy Inc and Deep Roots at Home

 

 

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

The Road of Lost Innocence is the heart breaking memoir of Somaly Mam.  Somaly was born in the Bou Sra Village of North East Cambodia in 1970 or 1971. The Phong people there are part of an old tribe of mountain people living in primitive conditions. Abandoned by her parents and then her grandmother, she raises herself by foraging for food in the forest and a little help from the other villagers.  When Somaly is about 9 or 10 and older man shows up and promises he will help her find her fathers family.  She is instructed to call him "Grandfather" out of respect.  Grandfather takes her to Thlok Chhrov and makes her his domestic servant.  He beats her and rents her labor out to others as well.  She finds some refuge in the local school teacher there and his family becomes sort of her adoptive parents.  She stays with them as much as she can to avoid Grandfathers beatings.  One night grandfather sends her to get some oil from the Chinese merchant in town.  The merchant rapes her and she later learns that grandfather sold her virginity to him.  At age 14, grandfather forces her into marriage to a soldier who violently beats her.  With her husband gone fighting for long periods of time she runs out of money for food and begins working at the clinic.  The doctors there preyed upon the girls and she is raped again by the chief doctor.  Grandfather shows up a few times to request money from her.  The last time he comes he tells her to pack her things they are going to visit an aunty in Phom Penh.  .

The aunty it turns out is a brothel owner and grandfather has sold her to the woman.  There she is beaten, tied up and locked in the cellar and had snakes poured over her to break her will.  She manages to escape once, but is found and brought back to the brothel.  Her punishment is to be beaten, locked up and covered with maggots. 

Somaly writes:  "The clients were horrible.  To them we were meat...Some of them like hurting us and did it for sport.  They were dirty.  They stank.  In my memory, their dirtiness is the most repugnant thing.  That and the smell"

Somaly eventually meets a humanitarian worker who gives her money and helps her leave the brothel. 

The injustice that occurs in robbing a young girl of her childhood is horriffic. In this book Somaly Mam brings up a couple of issues related to human trafficking that just wreck me.

1. Men believe that they will be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin.  This is why girls are being trafficked younger and younger.  Brothel owners can get a much higher price for a virgin because that is where the demand is.
2. Because a virgin will fetch a higher price it is common practice that after a young girl has had been victimized, she will be sewn up so she can be sold over and over again as a virgin.
3. In Cambodia, it is not uncommon for a young girl to be sold into sexual slavery by their own family.  

I can't even begin to imagine the horror of these things that happened to Somaly Mam.  Many people would lose their will to live.  But she has fought back and gone on to save over 4,000 women from sexual slavery through AFESIP (her organization in Cambodia) and the Somaly Mam Foundation which she co-founded.  She is an incredible woman and such an inspiration.

What God wants for Christmas

It's definitely Christmas season.  Parking is getting harder to find at the stores.  The weekly ads are thicker and longer.  We've got our shopping lists of who we need to buy for and what we want to get them.  I'd be willing to bet that Jesus is not on our shopping lists.  What gift we can give TO Jesus?   I love doing "What God wants for Christmas" with my kids. We have done this every year since they were young and they still enjoy it now that they are older. Our pop-up nativity has to be propped up because the tabs have long since lost their sturdyness, but the message is still the same.

What God wants for Christmas is a boxed kit that comes with a pop-up manger, an illustrated story book and 7 little Christmas boxes. Inside boxes 1-6 are different figurines for the nativity scene. Box #7 reveals what God want from you. After reading the part of the story that corresponds with each box, the child opens that box and places it in the nativity scene. You can do one present a day for 7 days or all in one sitting as a one time event. The story for each character reminds you along the way that in box #7 is a surprise and it's what God Wants for Christmas.
The boxes:

1) Angel

2) Mary

3) Joseph

4) Baby Jesus

5) Shepherd

6) Wise Man

7) Mirror (You)

What God wants for Christmas is YOU!   He wants your heart. He wants you to love Him just as He loves you and to extend that love to others. 

"My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways." Proverbs 23:26

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"What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
Give Him my heart."

by Christina Rossetti

 

For more ideas on remembering the reason for the season read my previous post

Keeping Our Focus On Him


I have linked up with: