Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

love

What love looks like

It’s Valentine’s Day and lots of people will be talking about love, doing loving things, buying things for the ones they love. That’s one kind of love. Another kind of love is this: “      Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The folks at The Exodus Road are living this kind of love every day as they work to rescue women and children from sex slavery.

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The following are some reflections from the group’s director and founder on a recent trip to Southeast Asia.

Victims of human trafficking are not lost forever, unless the very last one of us gives up.

And till the day they are free, I choose to hope and set my eyes on the horizon. There I see freedom coming–  freedom for victims of human trafficking and freedom for me as I seek it for them.  Freedom is the very aroma of God and love is his firm step.  I have never known joy as I know it today, as I too take up the smell and step of God.  Justice is the mix of these two elements, freedom and love.  When both are present, the Kingdom of God is realized.

Last night I witnessed the slavery of over two hundred women.  On my left sat a young virgin and on my right a young girl maybe twenty years old. Both for sale. All for sale. And I wanted this justice fueled by love for them so very badly.

This work that we are doing is a powerful thing in my own life. It stretches beyond my comfort, calls me to be courageous in the face of fear, costs me greatly and has shown me the face of God in ways that have surprised me.

Many people claim to know God. If the work of rescue has taught me anything, it is that I know very little about God and am a fool to claim that I do.  I now believe that he is so much bigger than I will ever comprehend and his love, justice and mercy are equally unfathomable.

This is a big story, after all, that we are living.  A story of impossible odds, brokenness and courage, passion and justice.  It is the best story I have ever read, and I still do not know how it will end.

I am forever changed, and we are only at the beginning.

-Matt Parker.  Executive Director, The Exodus Road.   Jan. 2013

It's OK to eavesdrop on this conversation: a review of Red-Letter Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo

Before I’d heard of Shane Claiborne or Red-Letter Christianity or even knew who Tony Campolo was, my faith was undergoing a crisis. Four years ago, my husband entered seminary and our Christian world was turned upside down by questions scholars couldn’t answer and didn’t think were all that important, by friends who believed differently than we did, by a culture that puts feet to its faith and exudes peace and simplicity.

red letter revolutionRed-Letter Revolution is a series of conversations between Claiborne, a 30-something who lives in one of the worst neighborhoods of Philadelphia in order to minister, and Campolo, an older educator, author and speaker, on a variety of topics (some of them hot-button) that Christians and the world at large wrestle with.

Topics like Islam, economics, being pro-life, homosexuality, immigration, environmentalism, politics, the Middle East and missions. Claiborne and Campolo challenge the evangelical “talking points” by encouraging Christians to look at what Jesus said and did. The following statement and question guides the discussion:

“The litmus test of whether or not something is Christian is the question, Does it look more and more like Jesus?”

The authors keep an open mind on these tough subjects, but they don’t just speak from study. Their experiences of living out a Gospel of love give life to the discussions. I was moved and inspired by their stories.

To read this book is to be open to challenges to what you believe, and to take it for what it is: eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who are deeply and passionately committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and who want to encourage others to live with depth and passion as well. You might not like everything they have to say, but if you’re willing, you’ll find ways to broaden your beliefs without abandoning your faith.

My faith and beliefs are not what they once were, and frankly, I’m okay with that. Reading Red-Letter Revolution confirmed what’s been slowly happening to my beliefs. I no longer feel like a non-Christian or a lesser Christian. I feel like part of a movement to change the world, one act of love and obedience at a time.

I hope you’ll give this book a chance.

For more on the Red-Letter movement, visit www.redletterchristians.org.

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In exchange for my review, I received a free digital copy of Red-Letter Revolution from Thomas Nelson as part of the Booksneeze program.