This week I’ve had the privilege to hang out with 40,000 college kids and another 5,000 older Christians at the Passion Conference at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. As the praises and shouts for God rang out over the arena more accustomed to football cheers, I couldn’t help thinking how God must rejoice as we fully engage our affection toward him.
Each year the leaders ask young people to give money in order to make a difference in the world. Human slavery was this year’s target of attention as we learned that more people are in slavery today than in any time of human history. It is estimated that 27,000,000 people are in bondage to some type of slavery. Many of these are children, and many are caught in the horrible sex trafficking that is a worldwide epidemic. During the first two days, over a million dollars were given toward six agencies that direct all their attention to setting people free and helping restore them to a good place in society. Over the next two days, people continued to give and many joined online until by the end of the conference over three million dollars had been given.
The second day of this conference I received an e-mail request from one of my students from the past asking me and others to pray for a college friend. Brother Thomas is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and he had just learned that his ten month old nephew has been abducted in Africa. We are crying out for God to rescue this baby. The world problem instantly became more personal, because some of the members of our group are also friends of Brother Thomas.
When a statistic becomes personal, everything changes. Could you imagine if your child were kidnapped? Each of the 27 million is a precious soul to God… who hates all slavery and injustice. May our hearts expand to become closer to his and may we determine to make a difference.
“Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; and then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:6-8