Dear tourist city

Filled to the brim with

Glorious light and breathtaking sunsets

Beautiful crystal clear seas sparkling

Vacationists staying at tropical paradise

Why is light a cover for breath-halting darkness?

Why is beauty treated as a commodity to be sold like cattle?

Why is paradise for some a living hell for others?

Dear floating market

Hovering buoyant above olive waters

Alive with hustling activity and curious sightseers

Exchanging coins for coconuts hoping neither will sink

Why is your people’s future floating but not flowing anywhere?

Why are you living in this monotonous grind day after day?

Why is exchanging this job, this life, not even on your radar?

Dear extravagant mall

Decked in elaborate decorations and cutting edge innovations

Lavishly themed after a different country on each of your ten floors

Charging prices more expensive than first-world America

Why is there a slum literally next door decked in mold, rubbish, filth?

Why is languishment the theme to some not ten blocks away?

Why is a priceless child begging down the street?

  Juxtaposition

And really, isn’t this a reflection of my life?

Dear perplexing life

Seemingly carefree and joyful

Patiently bearing with the shortcomings of others

Accomplishing so much good for the world

Why is your soul heaving burdened, disappointed, worrying?

Why is your heart frustrated and resentful?

Why do you do the very things you don’t want to do?

“Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24)

Redemption-oh-so-dear,

The mechanic who doesn’t paint us,

He changes our engine

The doctor who doesn’t patch us,

He heals our ailment

The trainer who doesn’t primp us,

He transforms our physique

 

 This Redemption

Who digs past the façade, unearthing the dirt,

Peering at your core, the raw bare soul,

And loves you inexpressibly

Liberates your chains

Replaces darkness with light

Transforms your life

And you are never, ever the same.

If any of you readers are interested in teaching English for a minimum of six weeks with the Baptist Student Center in Bangkok, please contact me through my website and I can put you in touch with the center’s director.

  All photography credits go to Christina Hastings