A Series of Events that Never Happened

A Series of Events that Never Happened

If I believed in luck, maybe it would have been on my side and I would have missed the whole series of events that were about to unfold... or rather not unfold.

I watched a woman reach into a public trash can in Chicago and pull out a mangled Dunkin' Doughnut wrapper. She looked inside. Disappointed by the contents of the crinkled paper, she flung it back into the trash where it could resume its rightful state of decomposing.

I wish I could say it caught me off guard but I've been prepared for this sort of thing. 25 mission trips and volunteering for people without homes are exactly why I have no excuse. A life growing up in the church chalked up to: "girl saw need, girl walked away."

I rationalized.

I justified.

I didn't serve.

I didn't act.

And so a series of events that might have unfolded never did because I was too inconvienced to give.

Guilt is a difficult thing to carry around, but wondering if God wants me to do something and then ignoring God is even worse. What story does this picture of shallow obedience really tell? As I process this (over and over) again (still not able to justify it without guilt), I wonder if God is sad about what happened. If it was my kid, I would be.

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Blue Is For Roseline

Blue Is For Roseline

Resilience. The ability to bounce back even after a child has witnessed killing without cause.

Disgusting. According to Invisible Children, an estimated 90% of the troops from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) were abducted as children. The LRA is notorious for seeking out children who will be the most impressionable and mobile. The best age: 8-14 years old. Once taken into the LRA, children are taught one thing: to kill. Severe. The darkness of the world is shoved onto the most innocent in the world.

Even in the spaces, where I did not know that people could still live, there was a brightness.

Inspired. A blue bracelet to remind me of Roseline, one child who has been born into a 24-year-long war and humanitarian crisis in Uganda.

My problems of soul searching are dwarfed. I can't help but ask myself what will I change because of what I learned today?

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