My friend Nikole Lim, an incredible photographer and founder of Freely in Hope, recently did an interview over at Red Letter Christians. She’s a better photographer, communicator, and straight better person than I’ll probably ever be and she got me thinking.

When I first found out that I was going to be CURE‘s photographer in Zambia (technical title is CUREkids Coordinator), my ignorant self was half expecting to be taking photos of snotty nosed little kids on the verge of tears while covered in flies (I warned you I was ignorant). You gotta pull at people’s heart strings to make them want to donate. Right? But what Nikole so aptly points out is that photos like these not only deny the subjects worth and shatter their dignity, but also give us, “the consumer,” an un-holy sense of privilege, fortune, and dignity not because of what we’ve accomplished, but because of how low we view others.

So yeah, I won’t take these kinds of photos. This said, working at CURE Zambia makes it easy not to take these photos (as the temptation will always be there thanks to my cultural conditioning). Sure, some of my kids are indeed covered with flies, but it’s because they’re smelly little buggers who would much rather be running around, getting up to shenanigans than be caught by their parents and bathed. These kids come to us with some of the craziest disabilities from legs that look like tentacles beneath the knee to heads swollen larger than their bodies and, somehow, they still have fantastic outlooks on life. An insanely rough life of discrimination and judgement has taught my little friends how to find joy in the tiniest of things. So yes, we can and should be helping these kids, but forget this better-than-thou, prideful air of privilege, fortune, and dignity. My kids have had a rough life that we’re trying to work with them to improve, but they’re far from miserable. In fact, we can learn a thing or two from them. Things about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We may have the resources and knowledge required to heal their bodies, but these kids might just have the insight and understanding required to heal our souls.