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by Idelette McVickerIn the video "Tears: Women in Afghanistan," produced before September 11, an Afghan woman said: "We need the women of the world to come looking for us, we need that hope that someone would come looking for us when we're missing."
I saw this video at a large women’s gathering in Houston, a week after 9-11. This statement gripped me. Did I go looking for these women when they were missing?
Or did I hear and look away? Did I listen and forget?
Although the Taliban came into power in 1996, it took a tragedy on American soil for most of us in the world to really wake up to the suffering of women in Afghanistan.
These women are no longer under the same political oppression, but their suffering offers a lesson. It also asks a penetrating question: What other women are missing in our world today?
I don't want the women of Afghanistan to have suffered in vain. I want to hold on to their reality and let it deepen my awakening.
There is so much to learn still. But today my heart is looking for the missing women of our world. I am looking for the young girls rolling beedies all day. I am looking for those sold into prostitution and locked up in brothels all over the world.
I am looking for the women who are chained to the secrets and paralyzing fear of domestic violence and abuse. I am looking for the women diminished to mere shadows in cultures that regard them as second-class citizens.
My God—our Father—wants them to be free. He is El-Roi, the God who sees. He knows where they are. He sees their hurt and brokenness, and He is longing for justice. He sent Jesus to bring good news, heal broken hearts, and announce release and freedom from prisons. He sent Jesus to comfort those who mourn and give joy and gladness, instead of grief, a song of praise, instead of sorrow. He wants to dress them in robes of salvation and victory. He wants them to live in the Light.
But how, my heart wonders, can they be set free, if we don't ask for their release? How can they be found if we don't report them missing?
Light overcomes darkness
In Matthew 5:13 Jesus says, "You are like light for the whole world." It is our spiritual nature to shine and shed light in dark places.
But in order to shine light, we have to be awake to the darkness in the world, and go there.
At the time of my first personal awakening, it seemed like I couldn't turn a page in the Bible without colliding head-on with a Scripture verse on justice. It felt like all the Bible did was talk about justice, injustice, suffering and God's compassion. For years, I hadn't seen it.
But then, ever so slowly, first my ears, then my eyes, then my heart and then my voice woke up.
I am still at the beginning of this pilgrimage. But I'd like to be alive, alert and fully awake to everything the Father desires.
Where is the Body of Christ in its awakening? Like a sleeping giant, perhaps we have still only opened one eye to this issue. But we need all our eyes to see, all our ears to hear, all our voices to be heard, all our hearts to beat as one with the heart of the Father, all our hands to work at justice, and all our feet to "dance upon injustice."
Now, the more I am awakened to suffering and injustice, the more I want the church to wake up and see the world as God sees it. But I am also reminded of my own first blindness. Growing up in South Africa during Apartheid, I lived in the midst of injustice and was completely blind to it.
The Bible reveals that blindness is one of the enemy's ploys. And not only does he try and blind us to Truth, he also covers up the evil and wickedness. Proverbs 10:11 (NSRV) says, "... the mouth of the wicked conceals violence." But God provided us with a Helper—the Spirit of Truth—who can cut through any of the enemy's schemes.
As the church, we cannot be excused from our responsibility. "Justice, like judgment, must begin in the house of God," says Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, in the book Why Not Women? "This issue of freedom and equality for women will be decided with or without the church. It is my deep conviction that for God to be glorified, the people of God must take the leadership. If we don't, we will miss the greatest opportunity since people fought for the freedom of slaves. It we don't seize this opportunity now, the church will fall behind for generations."
Reality of suffering
But even now, although I am more aware of the tragedy and suffering in our world, I still struggle to live it out in my daily reality, especially when life around me seems so different. Truth is, when my immediate reality includes love, respect and freedom, it's easier to assume that others' reality does too.
It takes a lot less effort to live in a small world.
In his book Good News about Injustice, Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission, shows that my struggle isn't unique. He says, "I don't know whether Jesus experienced dreams while he was here on earth or whether he felt as if he had awakened from a particularly bad one when he found himself back in heaven after his ascension from the earth. But I have certainly felt that dreamlike separation from reality when I have returned from these hellish places around the world. In no time at all it begins to feel as if the nightmare I came from in Rwanda or the Philippines or South Africa has taken place not in another country but on another planet. Back home, it simply does not feel real anymore."
I saw that even when home—my comfortable, safe space—was in one of those places Haugen calls "hellish," it was possible to be blind. I know now that it's not your geographical position that determines your awareness of injustice, but rather the condition of your heart. And your willingness to see as Jesus sees.
And sometimes this reality seems overwhelming. Where to start? And what difference can I make?
But I am encouraged that this is not my issue in the first place—it's the Father's. I have merely decided to join Him. He asks me to pray and use my life to bring light to the world.
But ultimately, it is the Shepherd who goes looking for His missing women and children. It is Jesus who hears the cries and sees the hurts.
He is the source of Light who gives power to go into dark places.
What I have to do, is be awake, have oil in my lamp, and follow wherever He may lead today.
Idelette McVicker is the co-author of Discovering God's Heart for Suffering Women. Read her life story on Christian Women Today.
