On The Ground

On the Ground

Life is your current view of things. Change your view, and you change your life. —Virginia Satir

ON OCTOBER 10, 2008, I boarded a plane with fourteen strangers for a two-week adventure. But this was no Caribbean cruise we were taking. Having been selected to be part of a documentary called Friendly Captivity, I was one of seven women who would take part in an experience of a lifetime—in India. This team of women, with nothing in common except our willingness of spirit and love of learning, would be followed by a camera crew and producers as we were challenged to come to grips with the contradictions of India, our views on poverty and injustice, and what—if anything—we would personally do about it.

After a twenty-hour plane ride from Dallas, we landed in Mumbai, previously known as Bombay. Affectionately referred to in India as Bollywood, this would be the most cosmopolitan city of our four-city tour. As we drove out the gate of our luxury accommodations near the airport, we were immediately confronted with debris, poverty, and some of the most inhumane living conditions we had ever witnessed.

As I sat in the air-conditioned bus, I looked out the window at men so skinny you could see their ribs, sitting helplessly and hopelessly with their heads in their hands. I watched out the window as a beautiful woman, dressed in her immaculate hot pink sari, emerged from a gray lean-to slum home and gracefully walked around the human waste spilled out on the ground. But I looked away as children walked the crowded streets alone, some totally naked.

As extreme as these conditions were, they were not quite real to me as I peered through my impenetrable window. That changed, though, once we stopped and stepped out of the bus.

On the ground there was no buffer; the experience became personal. Life in India became real. Real fast.

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Are you watching life go by as you look out the bus window of your life? Once I stepped out, I was forever changed. Could God be calling you to step out too?