Last night I wept for the world. I felt the brokenness of the world, and the weight of the world. I felt the sadness of the world. It was one of the most overwhelming and unnerving feelings that has ever entered my heart. I thought back to the fall of Adam and Eve and the world in it's days to come. Please don't stop reading because I mentioned the fall of Adam and Eve. I have a point to make.
I felt for the brokenness of the people who hate, who deserve and need love desperately, who mock and who lack joy. I felt for the brokenness of the ones who pretend they have joy.
I pray for these people. I prayed for all of you, all of us last night. I'm broken, too. Just because I believe in Christ doesn't exempt me from being a part of an imperfect people. I am guilty of all of the above things. But in the midst of the chaos and brokenness of this world I know that there is God who loves us so much. I know that God is going to make us all new and restore everything to the way He intended it to be when he created it all. There is so much hope in that. There is an end in sight.
I wish my voice were big enough to tell the world. The reason the Gospels are called the good news is because it IS good news! Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Christ redeems us. Christ was put on this planet by the God and Maker of all things, Maker of you and I. Maker of the amazing mountains you climb, and the trees you adore. He's the One who thought up the birds and eagles and seasons. He was put on this planet to redeem the brokenness of the world not so that we can have legalistic churches standing on the corner of the street blasting us and telling us we are all going to hell. Not so we can have door-to-door religious people bringing us pamphlets telling us what choices we should make. Not to tell us what we can and cannot do in life. I'm telling you now, the choice is our own. Christ is good news to us because it means that God is taking away the bad things of the world and making them good. That pregnant woman in Haiti who is eating pies of dirt from the ground has a chance to eat from a table filled with nourishment surrounded by people who love her with the God who created here one day. I chose to believe that is truth rather than believe that all she has in this world is hunger and pain, and then one day death. That is a sad world to believe in. There is surly no hope in this world without knowing that the God of us can truly satisfy her hunger pangs. There is truly no hope in the world if there is no God to reunite you to your mother who died last year. There is truly no hope in the world if that is the end.
Don't you ever feel the weight of the world? Do you ever feel sadness without reason? There is a reason, and it's because you live in a broken world. And the hope in that is one day there will be joy. I promise.
Yesterday I walked into work and was told to stop being so happy all the time, I was making everyone look angry. It was told with laughter and love. My joy is not my own. My joy comes from my Maker. Without the hope of His redemption I would have no reason for joy.
"Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is"
Blaise Pascal
I know I am so preachy these past few weeks. My heart is burning with so much to tell, though! My voice isn't big enough to tell the world the good news of Christ, but God's voice is big enough to raise up mountains. Literally. God's voice is big enough to say "Let there be light" and it literally happens. God's voice is always big enough.
The reason I want to tell everyone is not because I want to earn "brownie points" in heaven. I don't even think that's a thing. I want to share joy. That's why I want everyone to know. I want all the people in this world to have the same hope for the world that I have. And as Pascal says, if I am wrong I have lost nothing. If I am right I have so much to look forward to.
