freedom

i was in iowa talking with one of my friends about my time in india...and i can't remember the exact context that the comment came up in (i was probably "venting" about some of my frustrations with america, and the american church...which, if i'm honest, are also frustrations about the state of my own heart...) anyway, he said to me, "Mel, you've got to remember that God is a God who hates every form of oppression. He is just as passionate about freeing people in suburban america as He is about freeing people who are being oppressing in India." And that was good for me to hear. i needed to be reminded of that in that moment.

God hates oppression. God wants to set people free...and that includes me. i think sometimes i get so focused on global issues that i forget how desperately people need to be set free here in America too...

One of the things i've been wresting with since coming back is how there is such a split in my life. i can go hang out in a red light area in Kolkata, sit in brothels, walk down the lane, talk with the girls - and that doesn't intimidate me...but then i think about my life here. And i know there are women who are working in the sex-trade in Jackson...i just don't know them. i don't know where they hang out, i don't enter into their lives in any way...

so i've been chewing on that since i've been home, and talking with God about that, and really just trying to have an open heart as to how God would like to integrate my life and my heart right here in America. sure...i'm in this season of waiting -but i think that God can do some pretty amazing things while i wait...i really don't know what i'll do next (in terms of a "big picture"), but that doesn't mean that i can't be a part of bringing pieces of heaven to earth in the community i'm in right now. there's no grand master scheme yet - i'm just rolling ideas around for now...

on a different note, one of my friends and i are heading off to colorado tomorrow. we've got a ton of friends from out there. it will be a great trip...i get excited just thinking about all the good times and conversations that are going to happen. As if that weren't enough, we're going to do some backpacking in the mountains, and hopefully we'll get to climb Long's Peak (a 14,000 ft peak)...and nature is definitely a way that i connect with God. i'm not expecting any writing on the wall, or mountain - but i do know that time in nature is one way where my heart in more in tune with God's and where my ears tend to be listening better for what He may want to reveal to me.