(image by James Nachtwey.)
seems to me that this man, can't walk. he is in a feeding center. it looks like it's difficult for him to inhale without possibly ripping his skin tissue. or to exhale without his fragile body collapsing to a ground that won't console or comfort him. no clothes to blanket his frail body, crawling to a place that we don't know even exists. because we never knew he existed. we still don't know if he exists now. but he is striving to reach a destination that may place a film of flesh on his insubstantial bones. i wonder how he feels. what he thinks. where his family is. why he is in the condition he is in. it hurts me. and he's so far away.
now, this is what i want to do. this is what i am striving for. this is the path i feel has been created for my footprints. the road less traveled. the journey most fear. the walk that inspires hearts to meditate and to release scarlet tears. i have been dared to move from my seat of comfortability to a place of discomfort coated in famine, poverty, and what we as americans would consider, the worst way to live.
i know someone who challenges my every thought and action and word - and he said to me one day (i am paraphrasing), how can you be Christian and be so fearful? aren't you supposed to walk by faith? and his words have lingered around, in and through me since the day he spoke them into my ears. i agreed with him. and i told him it is so much easier to fear than to walk by faith.
if i want to accomplish anything, i have to start now and fear less. it's already too late, but i still have time. and God willing, this time spent for however much longer i am alive will be profitable. not to me and not for myself, but to Gods Kingdom and for the lives that are an inch away from death. i know it will be a challenge, but challenges should be like vapor - we know they're present but they should not serve as barricades. time waits, for no one.
