Heart Tracks - The Path Of Devastation

     I came across something shared by a missionary to South Asia.  It greatly convicted me.  Perhaps it will you as well.  She had come across a Muslim couple seeking medical help for their dying child.  As she looked upon the infant's wasting body, she knew it was beyond medical help, and death was very near.  She said, "My stomach sickened, and my heart cried out to God....After our meeting, she went home expecting to bury her firstborn within a day, and I went home to cry."  In her crying out to God, her question was one that would have been on our lips as well; "Why?"  The answer she received was not one that either she, or we, would expect.  She shares, "Then in the solitude, He spoke to my heart and asked me, 'Why do you cry for the physically dying, but do not show the same grief for those who are spiritually dead?  Why did it take a dying babe in her mother's arms to bring attention to her lostness?  Why do you pass by a single soul without bringing his or her needs before Me?' "  His "answers" were questions, and they shook her to her foundations.  Do they shake you and I to ours?

    We have just witnessed through new reports via TV and the Internet, the tremendous destruction and devastation that has taken place throughout Oklahoma and parts of the Midwest.  Airborne videos show us the wide swath of destruction cut through heavily populated areas.  Lives have been devastated and our hearts are moved.  We, who are the church, are responding with money, crisis care packages, and on-site volunteers to minister and help them to rebuild.  Many may be asking why, but are we ready to hear the same questions of us in His response?  Why are we so moved by the destruction we can see before us, yet unmoved by the destruction that we cannot "see" with human eyes, but is so present in the lives of those without Christ, and sadly, so many who would say they are "in" Him?  Why are we so unmoved by the devastation wrought by sin and ignorance in the lives, marriages, families, culture, and yes, church?  Why does it take a natural disaster taking place before we begin to see the spiritual disasters happening in lives around us every day?  Indeed, how can we be so quick to respond to the physical needs of those in the midst of such devastation, yet continue to be oblivious to the spiritual needs of those who have been devastated by the consequences of lives without Him?  We see and look down upon, through those airborne videos, the horror left in the wake of E-4 and 5 tornadoes.  We're overwhelmed by the scope of the destruction, yet do we ever see, through His eyes, the far greater destruction inflicted upon lives that have no knowledge or understanding of Him?  Eventually, homes and communities will be rebuilt, but only Christ can bring forth new life and new hope out of the wake of such destruction, physically and above all, spiritually.
     Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  The thief has been unleashed upon our culture and his wide swath of devastation is evident to all who really have eyes to see.  His path of devastation is evident to all who really see with His eyes, and we need go no further than the streets of our own neighborhoods, the cubicles and hallways of our own workplaces,  and the pews of our own churches to witness it.  It is our place to respond readily to the physical and material needs of every victim of physical disaster, but have we found our place in responding to the spiritual disasters that are happening all around us?  Will we continue to see clearly and humanly what is happening in the physical, natural realm, yet remain blind, even apathetic, to what is happening in the spiritual right now?  Will the thief's destruction continue unchecked, even unnoticed, or will we, you and I, the church, respond not only with the offer of the fullness of His life, but with the presence of His life, through us, on-site, right now?  We needn't wait for the next crisis.  The crisis is upon us now.

Blessings,
Pastor O