Wes, man I always love the links you post on here in response. You have my vote for King of the internet. It’s a sad, repeated story all over the world. Thanks for bringing these stories to our attention brother.

Four articles linked there on sex slavery in San Francisco. The Chines Mafia and Japenese Yakuza are very active here, and this is how they make a large percentage of their income.

These are great words to continue to process as we encounter the brokenness of a world on a daily basis. One of the things that have been on my heart a lot is the pain and the brokenness one can feel when you do notice. And I think because you notice, you enter the first stage of “suffering with.”

I have been really concentrating a lot of my prayer time to “notice;” “to see the world as he sees it.” And I got to tell you man, my heart has been really, really heavy lately. It’s been heavy because I listen to their stories, I see their brokenness, I detect the hopelessness in their voices, and it breaks my heart; first, because I hear their brokenness, but second because I don not have the resources to solve all of their problems. And you know what I realize; I realize Jesus could have eliminated all the oppression if that’s the kind of messiah he wanted to become. He had the power to solve the problems of the broken people.

We read in the gospels that he had compassion for the crowds. Imagine being able to hear the brokenness of hundreds a week, the imagine having the power to “fix” all their problems but not doing so because the father’s way was focused on something else. Can you imagine how heavy Christ’s heart must have been? No wonder he had to withdraw to a solitary place to be alone; no wonder he weeps over the city.

To notice is, I think where it begins, but it can be painful man.