Day 30: My Next Step

Now this may not be a drawing but it's a picture of what I'm drawing up. I'm working on another 30 Day Justice Challenge; only this time it's not with pens or pencils, it's with cameras. I'd be a total fool to try and rush it, so you'll just have to wait and I'll keep working.

I so thoroughly enjoyed the 30 Day Justice Drawing Challenge. It really was a challenge for me to apply all that I've learned, thus far; to not exploit people in my drawings, to say a 1000 words in a sketch, to outline hope, to go beyond the common image. I loved seeing my two passions married through this challenge. As it started to wind down, I began to think, "What am I going to do when this is over? I've enjoyed it too much." That's when God gave me the idea for this next project. It'll be similar topics, with a few new ones, but totally different sources for inspiration and awareness. Be on the look out!

HUGE thank you to everyone on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest who shared, liked, retweeted, and re-pinned the links to help spread awareness. Also a big thank you to Phil Cunningham at Steps of Justice for the work he did with the Steps of Justice Prayer and Action Guide, where I got a lot of inspiration and help for organization links.

 

Day 28: Compassion Fatigue

Compassion Fatigue- fatigue, emotional distress, or apathy resulting from the constant demands of caring for others or from constant appeals from charities (dictionary.com).

Compassion fatigue was typically applied to nurses and doctors; the over exposure to crisis' made them calloused and unable to react sympathetically. But now compassion fatigue is often found to be used to refer to what most Westerners suffer; because of the Internet, television and mass media we now have full coverage and full access to the needs of the world. We've had so many images of starving African children with swollen bellies and flies in their eyes that it's become ironic rather than motivating; images such as these have become so common to us that they are like white noise and something in us just shuts off.

There is another side of compassion fatigue and that's what you see happen to so many humanitarian workers; they've been working so hard, for so long, with little results that it can turn them cynical and hardened; some pull away entirely.

No matter where you are at, compassion fatigue is nothing to be ashamed of; we've all experienced it on some level and probably will wrestle with it again because it's our natural response to such extensive and constant demands- We weren't made to carry this kind of weight on our own strength. Without the daily filling of Holy Spirit, without God being your source, you will surely burn out. We weren't made to do this on our own, however, God may not call the equipped but He equips those He calls and you are called to love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly.

Ask God to show you areas of your life where compassion fatigue may have been draining you and ask Him how to overcome it.

If you'd like to read more about overcoming compassion fatigue click here: Overcoming Compassion Fatigue

 

 

Revised 30 Day Justice Drawing Challenge Poster

I realized yesterday that on the original 30 Days poster, I skipped day 28. So I made a new one correcting the mistake and changing a few details. So please, when you share the 30 Day Justice Drawing Challenge, use this one.

The rest of my 30 Day Justice Drawing Challenge will be a little scrambled, but I'm going to finish using the new poster as a guide for the next two days.

 

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:

 

 

 

Day 27: Injustice

Injustice is our responsibility no matter which way you spin it.

I'll never forget a revelation that someone shared with me. They were telling how they were in another part of the world beholding some terrible injustice and the person just asked God, "God when are You going to do something about this?!" And God just spoke to them and said, "I already have...I gave them you."

If you look at all the Scriptures referring to justice, you will see that God has placed the responsibility of justice, not on Himself, but on us. We are the ones commanded to help the poor and needy, defend the cause of the widow and orphan, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the sojourner...it's on us. One day He will come and He will make everything right; but until that day comes, it's our responsibility to make things right.

 

Day 26: Lack of Education For Girls

Take the girl off the justice scales and it becomes unleveled. Watch the video to find out why.

Go to www.thegirleffect.org for more

 

Day 25: Rape

Rape is something that we all know about. It's one of those things that, unfortunately, has become so common to us that we don't view it as an injustice like we do human trafficking. Human trafficking, even though it is all around us, is not so familiar to us as rape is. We have tv shows, crime shows, flashing it before our eyes all the time, we hear about it on the news, we see it in movies, etc. But just because it's familiar doesn't mean it's any less of an injustice; it doesn't mean that it deserves less of our efforts because people are already aware. Rape, like anything, can become like white noise; but that would be the worst injustice of all.

The picture represents what rapists do to their victims; they steal their victim's innocence, their feeling of safety and security, their trust, sometimes their health, and more.

1 in 6 women have been raped or sexually assaulted.

Every 2 minutes someone is sexually assaulted in America.

On average, a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa.

Check out www.rainn.org for more