It is a beautiful day today here in sunny Southern California. Despite the fact that it is finals week, and I have papers and homework out the ying yang, it is one of those days that you can’t help but to bask in the beauty of the day and seemingly forget about all the stresses in the world. My desk today has been the hammock I set up outside this morning.

But as I sit here, writing this paper for my silly class, basking in the radiance of the sun, I can’t shake this image that keeps running through my head.

Last summer I had a bunch of friends who went to South Africa on a missions trip through my church. One day, they were handing out food to the orphaned children living on the streets. Nearly an entire generation has been orphaned due to the rampant destruction of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. These children know death. They are as familiar with death as we are with our television sets or facebooks. There isn’t a day that goes by that these little boys and girls don’t stare death in the face.

It was these children that my friends were serving. Food that we would consider scraps, but was going to be the only meal that these poor children got for the day. The line was long and after what seemed like only a few minutes most of the lunch benches were filled with children sharing their scraps. The line was moving, smiles were being exchanged, needs were being met. But then my friend looks down and realizes that she had just served the last morsel of food she had to give. She looks up into the eyes of a skinny, beaten down child. The sorrow filled her heart instantly to the point of consuming her. She had to break the eye contact because she didn’t know what to do or say. So she looks up and away, only to be met by the gaze of dozens of others, in much the same situation as this little boy in front of her: hungry, tired, beaten down and standing under a white flag, blood pouring from the gashes in their souls.

As I sit here in my hammock, my bowl of ice cream next to me, my ipod playing in my ears, the cool breeze blowing across my face, I can’t shake this image. But the thing that I keep coming back to is the idea that these children are not defeated. They are standing under a white flag, not because they are defeated, not because they are crushed, not because they can’t press on, but because they are standing for everything that they have. They are standing for the only thing they have, the only thing that this world, that Satan could never take from them.

And
This is why they do it,
This is worth the pain.
This is why they bow down
And get back up again.
This is where the heart lies.
This is from above.

Love is this, this is love.
Love is why they do it.
Love is worth the pain.
Love is why they fall down
And get back up again.
Love is where the heart lies.
Love is from above.
Love is this, this is love.

This is love this is love this is love.

What the hell are we living for? Ice cream and a good grade? How about today we go learn what it means and see if we have what it takes to stand under a white flag.