Grim Reminder

Yesterday was a grim reminder of how painful our world can be. I used up all my cell phone battery by 4:45 p.m. due to the huge number of calls and responses that needed to be made. So many people with so many hurts. Even in the family of God, in God's church, there is much healing needed. God loves his people and will never forsake them. Even people who love Jesus with all their heart have times of deep pain. God created our world to be a place of perfect peace for his people to live in relationship with him. But sin has destroyed that peace. God is redeeming that peace and he is redeeming you and me.

Perhaps you, your children, your family, your work, your life, has been injured by other peoples' sin. Often we injure ourselves and must face the consequences and pain that occurs on the way to healing. It is amazing how fragile the human spirit is, how fragile the mind can be. We love stories of people who overcame great odds to beat an impossible situation, but more often I personally hear the stories of wounds from life's trouble that seem to never heal. The truth of these stories that make the news, is that many hurts remain and questions are unanswered once the cameras and lights move on to the next sensation.

As I think about these things, I am reminded that Jesus took up our iniquity (guilt), our infirmities (sickness), our transgressions (wrongs against God and others), and HE CARRIED OUR SORROWS!

I can't imagine the weight Jesus carried on the cross. I can't imagine all the types of prayers he must hear every day. Yesterday was a grim reminder that our world needs Jesus more than ever!

At 5:00, with my cell phone dead, I went to run on the river front trail. It was a great time of prayer! I took all these needs to the Lord. For an hour I ran and focused on God. As I ran the Lord rearranged some of my own feelings of despair. As I prayed the Lord reminded me that I would be preaching this Sunday on the "Be Attitudes" and "Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted." Now I am trustintg that God will move and that many of the stories that I encountered yesterday will have a different ending than expected, an ending written by the power of the Holy Spirit in God's people and the love of Jesus, the redeemer of mankind.