Reading: Terrify No More by Gary Haugen

It seems as if I'm on another one of my reading "jags" again. I finished reading Miracle of Miracles in about three days, then polished off Terrify No More in two-and-a-half days. I wrote about Terrify No More in my EIGHTARENAS.COM Newsletter.

It seems as if I am being guided to learn more about the oppressed, and God's desire for us to help them. I think I need to study and learn more about oppression from a Biblical perspective. Because of sin, we were all born into bondage. Because of Christ, some of us have been liberated—at least to some degree. But because of the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, I think we tend—even we Christians tend—to forget what bondage is.

I am thinking this morning of the young lady I helped a couple of weeks ago, the homeless teen, living in her car—the girl whose mother moved to another state when she was only 12 years old—the young girl now wanting to be "emancipated" from her father. She is oppressed—oppressed by her broken and dysfunctional family, oppressed by her poverty, oppressed by her fear.

Her story may pale in comparison to the young girls of Svay Pak I read about in Terrify No More, but her story is still real, gritty, and close to home.

God is on the move in my heart. It's time for this cerebrally minded, idea loving, lofty-thinking, middle-aged man to begin to do something concrete to help others.

May God help me and guide me with wisdom and courage and faith.