by Elizabeth | Aug 21, 2018 | Gospel Coaching, Gospel living, Learning Story
by Elizabeth | Jan 31, 2014 | Learning Story
Mindy tried to look normal, but she knew she wasn’t. Everyone thought they knew her story—how a senior had gotten her pregnant when she was a freshman, and she had given the baby up for adoption. But of course they had no idea of her much deeper, darker secret. They didn’t know about the late nights when Mindy’s pimp called her and told her to meet him at the Blackriver Hotel. They didn’t know that the senior who had gotten Mindy preg
nant was involved with a ring of sex traffickers. They didn’t know that no one knew and that she had no way out.
Five Weeks Later
There in the hotel, trying to scrub herself clean of the nasty, sweaty odor of three more men forced upon her, she noticed a number printed on the cellophane soap wrapper. The next day, duri
ng school lunch, she found a deserted place in the senior courtyard. She dialed, and a woman picked up after one ring. Mindy was astonished that this hotline volunteer seemed to know “her story” without knowing her at all. Intrigued, Mindy agreed to meet this woman at the mall food court later that afternoon. There, in the large open space saturated by the strange scent-fusion of Chinese food and chicken nuggets, she risked sharing a single page of her story of shame.
As you may have already realized, this painful narrative actually combines the stories of several women entrapped by sexual traffickers. Read more at 1. To read more about S.O.A.P. (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution), visit http:// www.traffickfree.com/S-O-A-P-.html.
You may know that large sporting events foster an increase in prostitution and sex traf
ficking. (Before last year, I did not). Governor Christie of New Jersey, where this year’s Super Bowl is taking place, spoke and tweeted to this reality this week, warning traffickers and users of strong consequences. He also shared the story of women who had been trafficked and tweeted:
As Governor Christie asserts, the issues of sexual trafficking of boys and girls, men and women are pervasive. Sometimes when I hear of such evil, I am struck with paralysis — the problem’s too big
— what can I do anyway? The gospel always calls us to respond to evil with the hope of restoration. As I prayed about it, here are a few ideas that came to mind. What are yours?
1. Get involved through prayer, giving, going. Sexual trafficking doesn’t just happen at the Super Bowl — it happens in your community. All you have to do is Google to learn more. Here are a few organizations that fight sex trafficking or assist those who have been trafficked. Take a look:
Traffickfree
Traffic911
International Justice Mission
2. Seek help… for yourself or someone else who struggles with their sexuality. Sexual addiction has been called an epidemic in America by Newsweek magazine. The fact is, someone you know struggles, and it might be you. It may be online pornography, sexting, serial relationships, and/or the painful story of suffering sexual abuse. Here are just a few organizations where you can find help for yourself or another:
Harvest USA
Route 1520
Dan Allender
3. Pray for grace in your own sexual story: here is a beautiful one composed by Philip F. Reinders, based on Heidelberg Catechism Question 109:
“Incarnate Jesus, thank you that you formed in me good desires and fashioned a body that feels pleasure. Yet how quickly desire turns into an all-consuming idol, how easily pleasure becomes a god. Chasten in me the lingering looks, leering thoughts, and hurtful desires for what is not properly mine, knowing that these are not harmless sins but violations of my soul and your honor. Amen”
What other ways have you responded to issues of sexual brokenness in our world or your life?
by Elizabeth | May 15, 2012 | Learning Story
A search for a quotation reference today hooked me back into the best book I ever read on emotions and God. My copy of Cry of the Soul, by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III, which I first purchased at a conference in 1997, bears the tattering and teeth marks left by a chocolate lab named Gracie. Somehow that seems appropriate for a work that invites us to take the tears and tears of our soul to the Lord and shows us how that’s exactly what many of the Psalmists do. Listen to this small portion on fear:
“The Psalms, and the Bible generally, extol a type of fear that God greatly desires to instill in us. It is the fear of the Lord. ‘The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in nothing but his unfailing love” (Psalm 147:11).
What are some Psalms you turn to to express emotion or when you are dealing with fear?
Fear distorts our perception of ourselves so that we seem weaker than we really are. It distorts the size of our problems so that they seem huge and undefeatable. But perhaps most significantly, fear distorts our picture of God. God seems weak, uninvolved, or uncaring in the midst of our troubles. After all, we think, if he were strong and concerned, he would not leave us in this mess.
Fear reverses reality by making evil seem all-conquering, and God impotent. But God is not impotent. The psalms bombard us with images of his power. He is a king (Psalm 47), a warrior (18:7–15), a rock (31:2), and a fortress (46:7, 11). They also fill our minds with pictures of his goodness, compassion, and mercy. He is the shepherd (Psalm 23) and a loving mother (Psalm 131).
by Elizabeth | Apr 12, 2012 | Learning Story
“Woman why are you weeping?” She said to them, “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” John 20:13
You know how when something wretched has happened, but then it turns out really amazingly wonderful? You know how you then retell the stories, saying, “and it looked so bad, we thought we are going to lose, everything was going wrong. But then…” In the week following Jesus’ resurrection, those closest to Jesus experienced such story reversals. Listen to what Dan Allender says about the importance of remembering sorrowful stories:
“Sorrow cannot steal our faith or even cause it to be lost; betrayal and loss steal our faith only when we refuse to remember, tell our stories, listen even as we tell them, and explore the meaning that God has woven into every one. If we want to grow in faith we must be open to listening to our own stories, perhaps familiar or forgotten, where we have not mined the rich deposit of God’s presence. With better eyes and ears we will sense how God has worked to redeem even our most tragic experiences.” Dan Allender, The Healing Path
For reflection: what stories have you reached into to mine the rich deposit of God’s presence? What did you discover?
