Beautiful Things

Driving to and from Richmond in this past day, I watched the world fly by outside my windows and thought about God and all His goodness. Yesterday afternoon, driving home while the sun was setting, I saw the best, big tree in the middle of a wide open field, and I wished I could have stopped and just looked at it for a while. I kept driving and just let my mind wander.

Trees in the middle of winter are beautiful. The world looks at them and thinks they look dead and depressing- they've lost their leaves and they're mere skeletons of the fullness they once were. But they're beautiful. They've gone through seasons of fruitfulness and beauty, seasons of warmth and light and growth. And now, they're in a new season. They're in a time of drawing back, of releasing leaves, of enduring the bitter cold and the gray, dreary skies, and of spending energy growing deeper, stronger roots.

Seeing so many of these barren trees silhouetted against the watercolor sky reminded me of my life, and the Gungor song "Beautiful Things."

Go ahead, click the link, play the song, and keep reading.

There are times when I look at myself and my life and just feel dead and depressed. I feel like how those trees look in the winter. I don't feel like my life is producing fruit and showing His beauty and goodness, and I feel like a skeleton of who He has made me to be.

But, we have a Creator who made us beautiful. He made us in His image (that really blows my mind, honestly), and He is beauty we cannot even imagine. If we are like Him in any small way, we are then shaped and molded by Him to be beautiful in our own ways, too.

The year goes by in seasons. Life, too, goes by in seasons. Winter seasons, with gloomy days and bitter cold winds and colorless scenic drives, bring us to spring seasons, with hope springing up from old ground, beautiful things coming out of the dust and the darkness, and renewed life and joy.

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new

There are times just as often that I look at my life and am amazed at all the good things that are happening. I'm in awe of how my God is providing and answering prayers and using me to be a part of something incredible going on in His kingdom. I see fruit coming about in my relationships, I see new things being born and passions being stirred and provoked in my heart. And in those seasons, I know how much I needed to go through the winter to feel the depth and width of the goodness of the spring.


Rest in the comfort that He is making You new in this season, whatever it may be. He is growing you, deepening your roots further into all that He is, preparing you for new life, new joy, new hope, and new beauty.

What makes my heart beat.

In my SMAD 311 Feature Writing class this week, we had to spend a class period writing an opinion piece on a topic we chose. I chose to write about sex trafficking, because there's nothing I'm more opinionated and passionate about. Read on to hear a bit of my heart for abolishing this epidemic and horrible industry.

It’s a trade of exploitation, manipulation and corruption, and it’s happening in suburban, urban and rural areas all across the United States—a place we unrealistically call “the land of the free.”

“Human trafficking is much closer to home than you think; victims, younger than ever, are just as likely to be the homegrown American girl next door as illegally imported foreigners,” said Amy FineCollins of Vanity Fair.

Women, children and young girls are held captive by their pimps or johns. They are beaten if they refuse to comply with his demands. They are often forced to take drugs, and they at times don’t remember the events of their nights.

They are scared into submission with acts of violence or threats of death. Their pimps tell them they are loved, promise them happiness and an escape from the struggles of their former lives, but then force them into a life worse than any they could have imagined.

They are made into objects of no value, stripped of their humanity and personality, alive only to make money for the man that owns them.

            Human trafficking is now the second fastest growing criminal industry, behind only drug trafficking, and children are approximately half of all victims, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

            It is a crime not often talked about, and its victims often stay silent out of fear of the repercussions from their pimps or johns. It’s not a lifestyle these women and children ever choose, but it’s one forced upon them out of desperation and trickery.

            Many victims come from backgrounds of abuse and neglect in their families, and they are seeking love and wanting to be wanted, and there are men waiting who know how to prey on them and play with their emotions.

            President Obama has declared January National Slavery Human Trafficking Prevention month in efforts to shed light on this illegal and immoral industry, according to the CNN Freedom Project.

It’s a step in the right direction.

            The FBI has also recognized the need for radical change, and states that they are “working hard to stop human trafficking—not only because of the personal and psychological toll it takes on society, but also because it facilitates the illegal movement of immigrants across borders and provides a ready source of income for organized crime groups and even terrorists.”

            Sex trafficking is an industry, and financially, it has been extremely successful.

            The Polaris Project based out of Washington, D.C. said “trafficking for sex and forced labor generates billions of dollars in profits by victimizing millions of people globally.” 

            The size and scale of human trafficking is sickening and horrible, and we need to take a stand against it.

            On average, victims are young children when they are forced to enter into sex trafficking of some sort. They can’t defend themselves against their johns, and we as a nation need to be their voice and their rescue.           

            The Shenandoah Valley Justice Initiative recently worked to create a JMU club called SVJI-JMU that works to involve students in the fight against modern-day slavery.

            Get involved. Don’t let this continue to be what the FBI calls “a problem of epidemic proportion.”

            These women and children are not criminals—they are victims of a horrendous crime. They should not be prosecuted—they should be protected. They don’t need pity—they need action and they need us.