I just read the email from Ryan regarding our martyred brothers' trial in Turkey. In case you have not read it, many aspects of the trial are covered up, hiding key evidence and indentities of those responsible for the murder of these brothers. And, perhaps, the motive behind the murder, which was their faith in Jesus the Christ.
Sometimes it is so foreign a thought to me that life is extremely difficult for people in other countries, under other governments and cultures. I comprehend it, but I do not know it. Likewise I comprehend other's struggles, yet I do not know exactly what they go through, experience or feel. Sometimes I try to let my heart imagine another's perspective and feelings, but it seems I still easily get in the way. And, if I am not careful, I speak in ways that do not communicate compassion for any who seek forgiveness, even those willing to confess and repent of arrogant pride, condemning words or abusiveness.
Recently I viewed the movie "Trade" which came out late in 2007. Trade is a movie made to expose human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, where mostly boys, girls and women are forced or deceived into enslavement and sold to provide some form of service whether manual labor or sexual. Jan 11th 2008 was the first annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. My heart was wrenched and empassioned as my wife and I watched the story unfold.
One response I have to the experiences represented in Trade is this poem - a feeble attempt at expressing my heart both to Trade and to the One who traded Himself for us.
Victim's Compensation
we give, you break
you lie, we take
our kiss, you snake
thrusting ebb, ruptured thread
dripping red, daggers said
hue wanes, paling wake
lifeless beat, rancid feet
yearn to cheat, mortal defeat
hope to scar, cease visitation
stifled Lamb, fraud's entraption
revived I AM, life's inception
Love's participation, agony's compensation
Sometimes it is so foreign a thought to me that life is extremely difficult for people in other countries, under other governments and cultures. I comprehend it, but I do not know it. Likewise I comprehend other's struggles, yet I do not know exactly what they go through, experience or feel. Sometimes I try to let my heart imagine another's perspective and feelings, but it seems I still easily get in the way. And, if I am not careful, I speak in ways that do not communicate compassion for any who seek forgiveness, even those willing to confess and repent of arrogant pride, condemning words or abusiveness.
Recently I viewed the movie "Trade" which came out late in 2007. Trade is a movie made to expose human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, where mostly boys, girls and women are forced or deceived into enslavement and sold to provide some form of service whether manual labor or sexual. Jan 11th 2008 was the first annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. My heart was wrenched and empassioned as my wife and I watched the story unfold.
One response I have to the experiences represented in Trade is this poem - a feeble attempt at expressing my heart both to Trade and to the One who traded Himself for us.
Victim's Compensation
we give, you break
you lie, we take
our kiss, you snake
thrusting ebb, ruptured thread
dripping red, daggers said
hue wanes, paling wake
lifeless beat, rancid feet
yearn to cheat, mortal defeat
hope to scar, cease visitation
stifled Lamb, fraud's entraption
revived I AM, life's inception
Love's participation, agony's compensation
2 comments:
Hey Christopher,
thanks for the post. I would be interested in having you unpack the poem, or maybe watching the movie would help. I have been meeting with a group here in Phoenix who have been looking at how to address the child prostitution problem here locally that for the most part is hidden and not talked about.
Ryan,
Watching the movie might give some further insight into their exerience, but I did not strictly base the poem off the details of the movie. Here's my first shot at unpacking the poem.
The first half of the poem is an attempt to glimpse both the process of the abduction and internal experiences of the victim during the abuse and enslavement. Many tools of the serpent, Satan, are used to coax the victim into accepting the abusers direction - deceit, force, shame, manipulation to name a few. Falling victim to the evil one's fraudulent purposes leaves the person (even any of us) wounded with broken heart strings, from the actions that are consistently forced upon them like the oceans' tide upon the coast and abusive/demeaning words which pierce the heart that is already in shambles. Hopelessness and helplessness fester drowning out the color and beauty of life in pain and ugliness.
2nd half:
While the victim's heart barely beats after such injustice and one's feet would usually wear not peace (Eph6:15) but shame, pain and despair. Hope may still linger in darkened corners of the heart that maybe one day all the filth will be reversed - either release from captivity or the hope for heaven, restoration, redemption, healing which consummates at death, where those trusting in Jesus find release from mortality (I wonder at how Jesus might speak to the victims of these grotesque sins). It is hope that somehow the abuse will cease, and wounds would be allowed to close over and allowed to heal through freedom from the enslavement and through the Lamb of God who was slain and suffocated. Whose suffering and death was the downfall of evil and the means to heal us. His resurrection enables us to have life in full even to restore life that was paled and mutilated by all kinds of evil. He suffered as the victim suffers. He overcame death and injustice - Jesus' story is joined with other victims and in Him is the only place where one could find comfort or relief from their suffering. When the humble few arrive at home with Him and He wipes every tear from our eyes our suffering and pain will be tossed away by inexpressible glory.
Such is my first attempt at unpacking the poem...
Elizabeth and I would like to hear about the efforts to fight the prostitution of children in Phoenix and AZ.
Christopher
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