I wasn't looking forward to anything specific, really, just the experience in itself. Where I had fun riding rides and playing games and eating junk food, I could not help but notice this strange and completely foreign world I had entered into. I imagine that the Northeast Arkansas District Fair might be what hell is like.
Tonight I noticed teenage and preteen girls wearing shorts so short you could almost see, well....things not only I didn't want to see, but things I did not want the 10 and 12 year old boys I was with to see either. Those same, and even different, short wearing girls covered in eye makeup so thick you'd think they were in some sort of theatrical production. As I stood in line for the Predator, I caught conversation from the group of very young teenagers in front of me who continuously used the F word, D word, S word, and any other word you can imagine! I thought to myself "what in the world do these kids parents' think about this sort of behavior" and no sooner had I thought that, I got my answer. One of their mothers walked over to her daughter and started the conversation normally, yet ending it with "and you better answer your d*m* phone when I text you." Oh! Their parents won't care......they're the ones who TAUGHT them that behavior in the first place! As I was walking past the lemonade stand, between the games and the carousel I caught site of a no more than 10 year old little boy.....SMOKING A CIGARETTE! I was APPALLED. My heart broke almost around every single corner I turned tonight. I felt like a raft floating on a sea of lost, LOST people...sinking in their own demise, so far down that some of them might not have seen me at all!
I don't know much about hell, but tonight, on those fairgrounds, I was certain those people were living in it. Not because they are damned to hell, I am not saying that at all. But to me, hell is the absence of God. Being separated by our loving Father, our Savior, and the Creator of our hearts is hell....the absolute heartbreak of it in itself is hell. And by the way most of the people I saw tonight behaved, it seems they are living in that heartbreak every single day. It hurts my soul to even think about it.
Now, I know that the majority of people who read my blogs are Christians....so this would probably be a useless place to rant about all of the things I want to rant about: like broken children coming from brokenness, the results a parents behavior has on a kids life, teenage girls and the gabillion topics I could go into there....but I will refrain. Because instead, it seems like we should come together as a community of Christians and ask "What can we do to help this situation?"
If we as Christians are told to bring the kingdom of Heaven on earth then the NEA Fair has been a huge flashing neon sign of how we are FAILING at our task. So what do we do? Well, I struck up a conversation with an 8 year old girl while waiting in line for the Cliff Hanger ride who inspired me some to help answer that question for my own life. The Cliff Hanger is a ride where you "hang glide" in the air. 3 people can fit on one hang glider but on ours (mine and the little girl-her name was Kiera) it was just the two of us. All through the line I felt a sense of protectiveness over this young child, who was a complete stranger to me, yet she was all alone, just like I was, in line. So when we went to get on the ride, instead of opting to "fly" with the two people I was there with (who joined me in line later) I chose to ride with Kiera. She had ridden it several times already and was giving me all the ins and outs. Including, when I went to lay down on the glider we were directed to go to....and she said "You should lay on that side" (she was in the middle) "Oh?" I said. "How come?" "Because if you lay on the inside and it's just the two of us then I will go too high.
She confidently told me how to protect her on that ride. And children will go to extreme lengths to all but beg for our protection. Think about it....most of the "rebellious" things kids do is all for a reason, a deeper purpose. Up into adulthood, we have set behaviors that come out of needing something. When a baby cries it needs food or a diaper change. When toddlers throw fits they need a nap or some attention. When teenagers disobey and break rules they are searching for boundaries, needing love through discipline. And the list goes on and on. I felt the need to protect Kiera, as with every single broken, lonely, and LOST child I encountered this weekend at the fair.
And the same goes for adults to. Where some of them I wanted to punch in the face (the ones smoking around small children, cussing at their teenage daughters, or the unpresent ones who owned the smoking cussing CHILDREN), others, I also wanted to protect. To hold. To love on. As Christians, I feel it is just our duty to do that. And where it might be awkward or weird or out of our comfort zone, they are depending on us don't you think?
What things are you doing in your daily life to ensure bringing the kingdom of Heaven on earth? What are things you can do in the relationships around you to love on people who are broken and so lost, living in a desolate hell far away from the heart of God and life that He wants for them? These are definitely things I will be thinking about in my own life.....
In Him,
Meg
