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Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, 
having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, 
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, 
where storms will show your mastery, 
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. 
We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes, 
and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

– Francis Drake

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me. I come out of this subculture that believes in God. And Jesus. The whole deal. I came here to escape it. Because I was ashamed of it.”
“Well you’ve done a hell of a job. I’m very proud of you”
“Well it turns out, I’m not just ashamed of my strange church, of it’s political views, or all the hypocrites. I’m ashamed of Jesus.
“Is this gonna get weird?”
“Yeah, probably. But that’s the point. I’m ashamed of Jesus because I want you to like me. I want you think I’m smart or sophisticated or whatever. It’s like Jesus is the geek in the cafeteria, sitting by himself, and I’m the guy pretending he’s not my friend.”
“Miller, we’re both tired. You’re the Pope now, do what you want.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m talking to you! As a person. You and I both hate those people who think they can do what they want because God is on their side, right? Well I’m apologizing because I’m the same as they are. All that stuff in the Bible, about feeding the poor. I’ve never done any of that. God tells us to love everybody. I’ve hated people; my family, folks back home I don’t agree with, idiot pastors. I hated them because I thought they made me look like a fool. I’ve spent the school year trying to ditch God. But I can’t. It’s like he’s following me around. I’m confessing to you that I’m tired of being a hypocrite and a coward. I need you to forgive me. Do you forgive me?”
“I wouldn’t know what to forgive you for.”
“Do you forgive me for misrepresenting God? He isn’t like me. He isn’t afraid. And he isn’t a coward. And he isn’t a hypocrite. And he isn’t like that messed up priest that raped you as a kid. I should’ve told you that a long time ago. Will you forgive me?”

   ” …… yeah … i forgive you …”

– from the movie Blue Like Jazz, starting at 95m20s
based off the book of the same name by Donald Miller

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

– William Martin

I was thinking through how little I know about these children when I take their initial profile picture here at CURE Zambia. For the most part, I don’t know their hopes, fears, dreams, and aspirations. I don’t know what they’ve been through or all that much about their life. There is a lot you can gather from a first impression, but there is so much more that you cannot. Dwelling on this eventually led me to playing with the photography technique of double exposures as an attempt to illustrate these feelings.

But this is my job, to get to know these children. To sit down and ask them what their dreams are, sometimes for the first time in their life. What do they hope for? What are they afraid of? What makes them happy? What makes them sad? And it is through getting to know these children that I have seen Christ.

I have much to learn from these little ones.