Have you ever been somewhere, or seen something, that completely opened your eyes to the immensity of an issue that before you had barely even acknowledged the existence of? I returned to Norman this past Sunday after an outrageous and thrilling week on the streets of LA. I went with a group of girls from Journey Church to help at the Dream Center during our spring break - I went with audacious prayers, and came back with am even bolder faith and dreams. There is a strangely different dynamic on mission trips within the US and ones outside of our borders. These people had heard the name of Jesus before, there was no language barrier, and they weren't ashamed to ask difficult questions.
St. Francis of Assisi once said, "Preach the gospel at all times, use words when necessary."
I will never forget the importance of living that quote each day while we were in LA. If I wasn't willing to love them in a way that made them wonder what was different about me, I wasn't presenting Jesus the right way. You see, Jesus made people feel like they were important to him... I would go even as far to say that he made everyone feel like they were his best friend. If I do not leave people with a feeling that they are of value to me, I am absolutely wrong.
One night about seven of us went out to the streets of LA in the middle of the night to love on the prostitutes in the area. One of the men that we went with had created this specific ministry thirty years ago and had since been building relationships with the girls and their pimps as they came in and out of the industry. It all began when he saw a girl on the street and pulled over to talk to her. While he was asking her questions and listening to her responses, her pimp walked up and told him, "if you're not going to buy her, you need to go." Pastor Clayton continued to talk to the girl, and then started a conversation with the pimp and by the end of the night both of them had asked Jesus to come into their hearts. He didn't think he was doing anything great, other than being obedient to the direction of the Lord. Little did he know it would shape the course of his life.
While I was talking to Pastor Clayton, he told me that he usually gets about 45 seconds to talk to a girl before her pimp will intervene. Forty-five seconds. Forty-five seconds to make someone feel important. Forty-five seconds to plant a seed. Forty-five seconds give her hope. Forty-five seconds to make her wonder, "what is so different about that person?"
The way I see it is that on average we get about forty-five seconds or less with each person that we run into on our way to class, or in the halls of our workplace. We are way too consumed with our own lives and schedules... until we realize the importance of being present and knowing when to intervene in the lives of others. Once we realize that, everything changes.
I want you to first watch this video, and then to show it to one other person.
The purpose is not so that you'll live in fear, but that you'll realize that this could be any one of us. We are called to stand up for the ones who cannot stand up for themselves, but in doing that we must first be able to recognize the issue that is so plainly before us. We are given roughly forty-five seconds in passing to acknowledge and help the people around us. What are you doing to put an end to this issue? What will it take for you to stop what you're doing for someone else?
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