As I dream and process about where God is calling me, connecting to EGC and working to end trafficking and engage the larger systems, i wrote out these thoughts below in the car on the way from CT to NY with my family yesterday. I feel it comes closer to what God has been putting on my heart than anything else i've written so far. It's bigger than one group, one city, or issue... its bigger than me - yet God has invited me to join him in it. The quote is from the book Follow Me to Freedom.
so here goes...
“Great leaders emerge. They appear out of, or enter into, the agony and pain and struggle of their day. They meet God somewhere, maybe the backside of a mountain as Moses did, and they get a vision from God. You’ve got to have vision to lead. They get a glimpse of the promise of God. You must be conscious of the fact that God is calling you to carry on the promise. There has to come a time in your pilgrimage when you become conscious that God put you in a specific place, for a specific time and He’s leading you. It’s fearful. It’s painful. It’s too big for you. Moses experienced all of these things. But, like him, you must feel that quiet sense of serenity that God has called you for this moment. It is humbling.”
- John Perkins (follow me to freedom)
What is the vision? The Vision is Jesus. The vision is hope and light in the darkness- restoration of the broken. JOY and dancing through the streets of bondage and despair. Freedom for each person to be all that God has created them to be, redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
The vision is building up, supporting, illuminating the image of God in others. Seeing each other as Christ sees them – as beautiful, strong, and created for a purpose - beneath the brokenness of worldly circumstances, the oppression, the abuse, the poverty which in Christ will all be washed away.
The vision is healthy community: deep relationships, connectedness and co-dependence – sacrificial love, humility and an openness to learning from each other – across the entire mosaic of national, ethnic, cultural, educational and economical diversity. We are all broken and in need of healing, everyone has something to teach and contribute, and something to learn and receive from others.
The Vision is opening up space to listen and be heard. By sharing ideas and resources of information, we develop a more complete understanding of the interrelated pieces of the systems. We can begin to understand how and why God’s intended system that brings life, gets broken, and produces exploitation such as human trafficking, and leads ultimately to death. Together we can create and explore ways to heal the broken systems, and partner with God in His work of setting the captives free, healing the brokenhearted, justice and reconciliation.
The vision is keeping space open and flexible to allow God to move and guide. To remain humbly ready to adjust our direction as God opens and closes doors, and leads us forward in His work of healing and restoration of the world into right relationship with Him.
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