This week we celebrate Worldwide Communion Sunday, purposefully connecting through the Holy Spirit with all believers across the globe as we proclaim “one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father who is over all, through all, and in all believers.” (Eph. 4:4-6) Last Sunday evening we had an opportunity to pray for persecuted believers around the globe, and it was inspiring to see so many people passionately giving their time and energy interceding on behalf of our brothers and sisters around the world. In staff meeting this week we also watched a talk from the director of International Justice Mission, an advocacy group who frees people from slavery and other injustices around the world. He challenged us to assess whether or not the things we care about and spend time and energy doing are really the things God really cares about.
Worldwide Communion, prayer for the persecuted church, and talk about fighting injustice leaves me asking hard questions. Can we really make a difference in these matters? What power do we have to fight injustice and can the gospel truly break forth into the darkest places in our world? Do we really care? If so, where do we begin? I don’t have all the answers, but I believe Christ can change any heart, and it begins with changing our hearts so that we care enough to stand up. I wrote this song to honor my good friend who fights sex-slavery in SE Asia: Cory Grimm
I’ll be a thorn in the side of complacent society
I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free
I’ll be speaking the truth, a heavy dose of reality
I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free
I’ll stick a knife in the back of the sex-slave industry
I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free
We’ll put pressure on those who permit these atrocities
We’re gonna stand up and make some noise
Stand up and make some noise, ‘til these children are free
CHORUS:
There’s a little girl who just forgot her name
She’s trapped in a world where soulless men seek pleasure from her pain
How can I be at peace, while she remains a slave?
Surely this is what Jesus meant, when He said, “What you do to the least of them…
If you fight for the poor with the liberal community
Then stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free
If you claim to believe the truths of Christianity
Then stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free
CHORUS
(They should be) Free to be children, Free to have friends; To be human, and feel whole again,
Freedom to dance, freedom to play; To hope, believe, worship, pray
Free to forget, Free to ask, Why? Freedom to laugh, freedom to cry,
Freedom to love, and freedom to live, Freedom to hate, yet someday forgive
There’s a little girl who just forgot her name…