One of my favorite philosophical quotations if from the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who said "A picture held us captive, and we could not escape it, for it lay in our language." I've built a lot of theory around that simple statement, but I'm sharing that with you today for two reasons. First, everyone needs to have at least one good philosophical quote to share. It makes you sound more educated. The second is that I have been the captive of pictures over the last few years, and I'm finally willing to admit it.
About eight years ago, I was leading a 30-Hour Famine at my church. It' something that I have done many times. As a part of the educational presentation, we showed a video that had a picture of a young African girl, sitting in front of her home, clutching a doll. The video explained that her parents had been taken away by the local guerrillas and she was now alone, with nowhere to go. It's a tragic picture and one of several heart-rending stories that come across every day, when you consider the plight of the world's children. I must have shown hundreds of similar pictures to people over the years. In this case, though, I was reminded that this little girl, whose name I'll never know, is the exact same age as my own daughter.
When that really sank in, and I began to wonder what her life may be like, and what my own child's life would be like in those circumstances, the picture took hold of me in a way that few other events in life have before or since. Even now, when I think of people in need, of injustice, of sadness, that picture springs back into my mind. You can say that it is still holding me captive, after all these years.
The world is full of images that are hard for us to view. I remember seeing a picture of a third-world village where the streets were unpaved, junk was everywhere, and sewage ran openly through the ditch. I was shocked when I discovered that the picture was taken in West Virginia! There is much that ought to catch our attention and captivate us, and pictures sometimes allow us to put a face on what's going on. Maybe they can even make us look up scriptures like James 1:22-27 and take them seriously. So what has captivated you? What are you looking at?
One of my favorite philosophical quotations if from the later works of 
parents had been taken away by the local guerrillas and she was now alone, with nowhere to go. It's a tragic picture and one of several heart-rending stories that come across every day, when you consider the plight of the world's children. I must have shown hundreds of similar pictures to people over the years. In this case, though, I was reminded that this little girl, whose name I'll never know, is the exact same age as my own daughter.
The world is full of images that are hard for us to view. I remember seeing a picture of a third-world village where the streets were unpaved, junk was everywhere, and sewage ran openly through the ditch. I was shocked when I discovered that the picture was taken in West Virginia! There is much that ought to catch our attention and captivate us, and pictures sometimes allow us to put a face on what's going on. Maybe they can even make us look up scriptures like 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
