Of course, things are getting worse.
The headlines this week are full of unspeakable things
but that’s not what’s most indicative of our worsening condition –
what’s worse than the headlines
is that with babies killed by chemical weapons,
kidnap victims,
mass graves in Mexico
and teens killing random strangers out of boredom,
we’re spending most of our indignation and emotional energy
protesting the actor
cast as the next Batman.
I understand.
I’m numb, too.
I see the footage of victims in Syria,
hear about another murder,
kidnapping,
assault
and it feels like I’m watching a rerun
of a very old show.
Somewhere deep,
entombed beneath the emotions I’m using
for my own troubles,
a vessel bursts
for the smallest victims in Syria,
like an aneurysm in my soul,
buried so far down I’m not registering the symptoms.
And verses I read long ago as a teen-ager
float through my mind
like news feed across
the bottom of the TV screen
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” Matthew 24:12
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3: 1-5
When I first read these verses
I was a child of the sixties,
and they made me shiver as I tried to imagine
how I would survive if I lived into those times.
Now, I know.
By faith alone.
There is another verse I learned back then,
“For we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
And now I know, that just as a blind man adjusts to maneuvering in the dark,
so the Holy Spirit helps me
feel my way through these dark times
even as my spirit experiences a type of emotional paralysis.
The world does not need my bleeding heart,
it needs my Jesus,
so I will continue hobbling on the prosthetics of faith
all the way to the red line in our future.
I pray for the world.
I pray for the victims.
I pray for the criminals.
I pray for my own heart not to grow cold.
And I wait for the day the world crosses God’s red line.
For I know that God is not like any man,
He is not like me
or the president
or any pope or liberal or conservative or tv preacher
or child
He is God
and He already knows the day
when He’ll decide it’s time
to interrupt regularly scheduled programming
with a news flash from on high
that He’s done with this chapter of eternity.
Hold on, loved ones.
Even if our new Batman
fails to rise to our superhero expectations,
Jesus will not fail
to deliver us from these days
all the way into the light.
For we do not live with a dark night rising
but with the promise of a coming eternal day.
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Your prayer is my prayer too. Thank you for posting this Lori.
“The world does not need my bleeding heart, it needs my Jesus” – amen!!
Lori, I praise God for your witness- and thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you. My life has been touched by your words my friend. May God continue to bless and inspire you- until that day.
Amen.
How do you do it? Very well said. Thank you.
through Christ alone.
Clear. Articulate. Hopeful.
May God sustain you in the midst that His Truth will go forth. Amen
Amen. Thank you, Lady.
Oh, to hear those words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Those two adjectives describe you so well. Keep on keeping on! MOMMA
Thanks, Mom.
the end of this quoted verse replays in my mind “…having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 My prayer is that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and that we are living in His power (not denying it!)
Amen!