First and Second Samuel

A couple of times a year God allows me to wend my way through the two Samuels in the Bible. I am always eager to dwell and meditate there. Why this narrative moves me so much is still kind of a mystery to me. But moves me it does. And gives me lots to ponder.

Like God's kindness in keeping David from shedding Israelite blood....its sort of a theme. Saul's, Nabal and his servants', a whole army's worth when he was hiding from Saul with a Philistine king. He even grieved when his old mentor, General Abner was killed by a revengeful Joab.

God does the same thing for me! It's like He puts His hand over my mouth and says, 'you sure you want to say that?' which gives me time to reconsider. Or to interrupt my vain thoughts with, 'there is a better way to think'. What a savior we have!

So like God.

Parental Caveat....this is not a nice post.

Last Friday I was up at the hospital interpreting and flipping through a Time magazine. An article there described the ramped up hunt for girls to supply the expected need in brothels in South Africa during the World Cup. Really? As in NO. And OH NO. It blighted my morning. Later, when I walked toward my car I saw that I had gotten two texts. One from my son, Jay who asked me to see a photo of two boys picking through trash in a dump in Bangalore. He knew we had visited there a while back. The other text was from a friend who had just watched a women be honored for her effort in exposing the horrors of the sex trade.

It is difficult to reconcile the safe, clean, friendly way I live in Norfolk to the realities of the rest of the planet. Girls sold to pay a debt. Children foraging for food in a dump. It seems monstrous. It is monstrous. And then God let me hear Him. It sounded something like this:

The long term way for children to be permanently rescued from brothels and hunger is to shift the thinking of their villages and their society. If they can be seen as valuable people who have a right to be equipped to provide for their own needs, then they will not be neglected or sold. 6 years ago a small group of us built a school. This building now educates over 500 children who would have been sold, and who have certainly known hunger. Somehow God allowed us to be invited into the shifting of a entire village.

God is letting us be the point of the spear that is a weapon He is using to undo the dark deeds of child trafficking. Going to India this summer is necessary if we are going to be witnesses of transformation. And speaking of a Good King to these amazing students is a source of Joy!