Day 6: Slavery

In the Bible it talks about "bondservants"; bondservants were men of honor who had been slaves but after their term of service had ended, chose to stay and continue to serve their masters. In Deuteronomy 15:16-17 says, "But if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever..." Bondservants would wear an earring so that all men would recognize their honor in giving their freedom to serve their master. It was their choice and their honor. But that was then...

 This is now. 

 

For more information on today's abolition movement, check out www.notforsalecampaign.org

Day 5: Generosity

Generosity makes us flip to giving every time, but generosity is more about a lifestyle than a budget plan. If we are truly living generously that means that we have taken the locks off of our time, things, passions, dreams, gifts, homes, lives, etc and made them open for people; especially people in need. Generous lives tell those around them that they don't need the right key to have access, they just need to accept. 

Generosity is the throwing away of your keys that once limited access and allowing others to throw away the keys they thought they needed to gain it. It is openness. 

 Generosity and fighting injustice must go hand in hand. Our generosity is the key to freedom and justice for others. 

Pass it on. 

Day 4: No Shoes

It was hard to know how to draw something so basic as shoes, they are a basic necessity. But yet for something so simple and necessary, millions of people walk barefoot and suffer for it. 

Having shoes allows kids to walk safely, free from injury and diseases that are transmitted through the soil. It allows kids to have an education; many schools won't allow kids to attend if they don't have shoes, and without education the cycle of poverty is allowed to continue. 

Want to help? Check out TOMS

 

Day 3: Extreme Poverty

 The picture itself is one that I took in one of the slums of Thailand. This picture struck me so because I couldn't believe that I was actually the one behind the camera, looking through the lens at this impoverish toddler playing in the trash next to a river filled with raw sewage. I felt so guilty for taking this picture but it was one of those moments that I knew that I had to take it, not for me but to advocate for people like this little boy; that I could stand and testify with a picture, such as this, saying, "Look you can't explain it away. It's not a farce. It's not a million miles away. I've been here, I've held that boy. It's real!"

But the sad reality is that there are slums like this. Extreme poverty exists, and for whatever reason, is worsening. I think this picture demonstrates the extreme separation we have between our world and the impoverished world. But just as the drawing suggests, what's real is the picture - the reality of extreme poverty. The world that we have drawn for ourselves and the comfort that we allow to separate us from the needs of the world are temporary and mortal; a facade we have bought into that will fade in the end. 

 Global poverty facts: (http://onedayswages.org/about/what-extreme-global-poverty)

• $1 challenge. More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day and more than 2 billion live on less than $2 a day.
• Check your assumptions. Americans believe that their government spends 24 percent of the federal budget on aid to poor countries, but the actual figure is less than 1 percent.
• Daily disasters. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria—all treatable diseases—claim the lives of over 8,000 people every day in Africa due to lack of access to health care.
• The water walk. Women in developing countries travel an average of almost four miles each day to collect water.
• The poor pay more. People living in the poorest slums can pay as much as ten times more for water than those in high-income areas of their own cities.
• Gender disparity. According to the U.N., the majority of people in poverty are women, who globally earn roughly half as much as men.
• Daily bread. Food prices have risen 83 percent since 2005, disproportionately affecting those in poverty who spend a higher percentage of their income on food.
• No school for you. In 2005, a conservative estimate stated that 72 million children around the world of elementary school age were not enrolled in school.
• The global wealth gap. The richest 20 percent of the world's population receives 75 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 40 percent receive only 5 percent of the world's income.

Day 2: No Water

 Around 1 Billion people live without access to clean drinking water. Watch this video to find out more about the water crisis and how you can help. 

 For more information go to www.charitywater.org

Justice Drawing Challenge Intro & Day 1: Hunger

 At the beginning of the year I made a Justice Drawing Challenge that would last 30 days, each day having to draw a different justice issue. I put off doing it myself, at first, because I had just recently finished the 30 Day Drawing Challenge and had other demands on my creativity, but right now I'm reading a book by Patrick Dodson called The Identity Project and it gave me a shock back into gear.

 In Chapter 3, he dives into loving your neighbor as yourself and what that means. He then asked some very specific questions at the end of the chapter asking what you were doing now to love your neighbors as yourself and what you could do to start doing that today. I thought back to this drawing challenge that I had created in the beginning of the year and decided that it was something I need to do. I have given my life to seeking justice for the those who lack it and to speak on behalf of those whose voices cannot be heard. Working for justice brings out the best in me and draws every part of my identity into symmetry, especially my passion for art. 

 So for the next 30 days I'll be posting drawings of different justice issues. I encourage you to share them, research them, discuss them and draw your own; in fact I not only encourage you to do so, I beg of you to do so. The more we circulate things that raise awareness, the more we can wipe out ignorance and step closer to change. Are you with me?

Day 1: Hunger [approximately 25,000 people die everyday from hunger-related causes]

For more information on world hunger and how you can help go to www.bread.org

 

Love Thyself

"'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'" - Matthew 22:36-40

Love your neighbors as you love yourself.....so how then can we love our neighbor if we hate ourselves? The answer is easy; you can't. 

Have you ever thanked God for the way He made you? 

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said, "Dang I'm sexy!"? 

Are you happy with yourself or are you constantly analyzing what you need to change? 

Be good to yourself, love yourself; if you can't love yourself then how do you expect to love anyone else?