At the End of Slavery

Earlier tonight I went to see a short movie about slavery and the battle for justice.  The video is good to watch but hard to hear.  We live such comfortable lives and are so immune to our surroundings that seeing these things is hard to believe.  But believe it, it's happening.  In a small group discussion I had recently we were going through 1 Thessalonians, and in 2:2 it says "We had previously suffered and been insulted. . . .".  The verse continues but after reading it the question we asked ourselves was, "How have we suffered in our lives?" 
How have I suffered?  Well to be honest and this is what I shared with our group, I have not suffered.  I really thought about this too and the more I thought about it the more I realized I have not suffered.  But it doesn't just end there.  I thought to myself what suffering really is.

Websters New World Dictionary says Suffering means - the bearing of pain, distress, etc.
And to further explain Distress is defined as - pain, suffering, etc.  & a state of danger or trouble

Wow?!  And all my life I thought suffering was a bad day, a friend or family dieing, not being able to pay bills, and anything else that goes wrong in my life.  Well this is exactly why I said I have not suffered for the Lord.  I have never been beaten for proclaiming His name, I have never been threatened for believing in Him, I have never had to chose life or death because of my faith.  As comfortable, selfish and ignorant people in America, we think we suffer all the time.  Wrong!

So what does this all mean.  To me it made me realize that God has given me this comfortable environment, He has given me all these opportunities and He has given me all the things I have.  But He has not just given me these things so I can be happy and live comfortably.  He has given me everything I have so that I can be better equipped to live out His word.  He has given me health and wealth so that I can help those in need and bring them out of there suffering through Christ.  For me to sit back and think that I am suffering and to just worry about myself is to be rebellious against the Lord.  He has equipped me to serve Him, and right now that is in Ellensburg and maybe someday somewhere else.  But for me to really surrender and love God I need to understand that I have not had a gun to my head because of what I believe because I have been chosen to spread the word and tell those who don't know Him.

I have a short trailer to the film I watched and a couple websites that you can go to, to learn more about child slavery and suffering in the world.


At The End Of Slavery - Extended Trailer from International Justice Mission on Vimeo.


http://www.ijm.org/
http://www.persecution.com/
www.photogenx.net/sexandmoney