Sunday, February 26, 2012

Day 29: Awareness

The picture in the background was taken during my time in New Zealand. I was on a 6 month discipleship program that had a heavy focus on social justice. On this day we were challenged to spend a day in another person's shoes (more or less). This picture is of me and another girl that chose to spend a day in poverty; what we went to bed with was what we had for the rest of the following day. We walked to our place of meeting in our bare feet. A man on the streets asked me if I had any spare change and I explained to him that I truly did not have anything and I told him how we were spending a day in poverty to better understand what people go through everyday. The look that man gave me is still as clear in my mind as the day he gave it. He was perplexed, astonished, and proud. That look changed something inside me.

Awareness draws a line in your life. A line that says, "You can either stay on this side and do nothing with what you now know or you can keep walking forward; either way, you will never be the same again."

Many lines have been drawn for me since that day. I wrote a song towards the end of my time called, "I Can't Go Back To Okay." Part of that song says, "Okay is for the naive cause okay will not suffice. I've seen what okay brings and it is anything but right. It's time for fullness and extravagance of justice peace and life. It's time for calloused knees and bigger dreams. Stewards of the earth arise with relentless hands and softened hearts; a zeal for justice in our eyes, with feet ready to walk this earth cause okay is for the night." (The part in bold is what you see on the poster.)

William Wilberforce once said, "Having heard all this, you may choose to turn and look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know."

This is what awareness is all about. It's about challenging people to step over that line, to step out of the gray, abandon the okay, and engage.

Which way will you step?

If you'd like to hear my song, watch this video:

 

 

 

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