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July 7, 2016
Grrrr. I need a break from social media. My heart, my very soul, hurts. I didn’t mean to see the videos of those deaths. Not because I’m trying to ignore it but because I KNOW you can’t unsee these things. You can’t un-feel this pain. I used to hate February growing up and going to school because that was the month the schools said to focus on my history. But it wasn’t about the good and great we could be. It was ALWAYS about the slaves and the oppressors’ brutality. I remember the pictures of scars and defaced ancestors. The tellings of how our mothers were raped, how we “gave” ourselves to Massa and his friends to protect our men. What’s the difference from then and now?!?!?
Me: What has changed?!?!?! What? Jesus: you know me, you can tell people about me Me: they don’t deserve you. God: neither did you. Me: but I want them to hurt! I want them to feel the pain and fear that we feel. I want them to wake up afraid that in the middle of the night, their sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, friends didn’t make it home. Jesus: I feel your hurt. Every time someone denies me and dies entering eternity without me, I feel the pain you feel. Me: NO! I want them to be beaten for NO REASON. Not because they’ve done something wrong. Simply because I’m bored or because I know I won’t get into trouble for doing it! I want to hunt them, drag them through court, and they be put to DEATH, simply because we said it is so. Jesus: I WAS PUT TO DEATH! I was beaten for nothing that I did of my own. Simply because man was bored and had nothing better to do. I WAS BEATEN! I WAS BRUISED! I. WAS. PUT. TO. DEATH. FOR YOU. But I was put to death for them too. Me: But Jesus… I’m afraid. To be me. Of the skin you gave me. For any child I have. For my family. Lord. I. Am. Afraid. Holy Spirit: What have I taught you about being afraid? Me: 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Me: where is the justice? I want to strike back! I’m tired of crying. We’re tired of crying! Holy Spirit: what have I taught you about this? Me: John 3:16-18
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Romans 12:19-21
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Psalms 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.
Jesus: When you can’t remember these things. Remember what and who I Am to you. Me: okay. Jesus: What and Who Am I? Me: Jehovah-jireh= My Provider, Jehovah-Shalom=My Peace, Jehovah-Nissi=You fight my battles, Jehovah-Rapha=the one who heals, El Olam=the everlasting God Father/Son/Holy Spirit.
Keep praying; keep ministering. You were made with a purpose, and you were bought with a price.
Today
I wrote that passage three years ago. Yet somehow, it still applies to so many of us today. We have all, at some point, been bruised, misused, and to some degree, broken. We live in a broken world. A world that grows darker with every passing day. Where is the hope? Where is the light?
In church service today, the pastor put down the challenge; what do you say to someone that is utterly broken by life? Those who feel that they have been subject to the cruelty of the “governing body”?
What do we say to those who are greiving? Those who are facing the first holiday after a loved one has been violently taken from them? How do we love these people? How do we embrace the other people who are responsible for the hurtings that we face?
Matthew 5:44 tells us what to do. Colossians 3:23-25 tells us how to do it and why.
Is it easy? Nope. Not easy to think, to say, and I’d bet my bottom dollar that it is not easy to do.
But when we trust in God, that means that we are to trust in His promises and His statutes.
I don’t know what life has thrown your way. I don’ know the different ways that life has tried to crush and break you. But I do know the God that has spoken everything into existence. This God is not blind to our troubles, nor is He blind to our faults. He loves each of us and desires that none of us perish.
As we head into the holidays into “Thanksgiving,” let us do so genuinely thanking God for His goodness. For we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, and are called according to His purposes.- Romans 8:28
Worship songs to consider: •Just as Sure •Pslams 23 •Good & Loved •You Know My Name
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