Did you ever have one of those days that you say, “What is going on here, Lord?”
This can be taken good and bad.
Watch the news sometime. I’m not talking just local news. Don’t just watch one channel for news either. There are definitely some political newscasts – extremely liberal and conservative out there. The national newscast aren’t all that great either. When the top story on the NBC Nightly News starts off with a story of how Britney Spears is rushed to the hospital for another breakdown from too much exposure to the media or Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah’s couch again or a pro athlete gets suspended for drugs or is having an affair, it makes me really upset that we as a culture are not focused in on the real needs of our civilization. I think, especially in America, we are really out of touch at what is needed.
Now, I am no globetrekker or world activist, or really sophisticated at all (ask my wife, she’ll tell you), but I do like to watch BBC World News when I get a chance. I have a friend of mine, years ago that told me to get a better worldview, watch the BBC News. They do truly cover the world. In one episode they had covered stories from El Salvador, the US, Poland, China, Africa and Antarctica and not one celebrity!
When I look at some of the events that are going on, earthquakes in China, flooding in Iowa, wildfires in the west, 1000 year dormant volcanoes erupting in Chile, record number tornadoes, gas prices, unemployment rates, homelessness, mortgage crises, it makes me wonder what is going on.
We have some of these things going on in our own lives right here in Buffalo. We have people that are working paycheck to paycheck barely making mortgage payments or choosing between gas money or food, relationships erupting, a wildfire of rumors about this person/business or that person/business, tornadoes ripping families apart with depression/anxiety, etc.
At our church, we are in the process of trying to find a new senior pastor. We, too, are not unaffected by some of the “natural” disasters that I mentioned before. Some of our church members are wondering when all of this hurt will be over with or will it?
I found a verse in a devotional booklet that I got for youth directors and seemed it very fitting for some of this.
In Zephaniah 3:16-17 it reads: “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Folks, now more than ever before, we need to wake up. We need to start realizing that we are called as followers of Christ to give our worries and needs to Him. We shall not be afraid, for He is there to love us and defend us. Through all of the hardships that we might be handling, whether public or private, we need to not be silent anymore. We need to make a joyful noise. I know that it is hard, it is difficult. God never promised us an easy life. in fact, He tells us that the closer we get to him that harder it will be, for the enemy will try everything to rip us away from Him.
I like that it states in the verse, “do not let your hands hang limp.” I see that meaning a few things. I think that it means that we need to be strong and be ready to fight, that we need to keep our hands busy serving Him and others, that we need to keep raising our hands in praise in all that we do, that we need to keep extending our hand to help others out and up, to keep our hands constantly reaching & working to glorify Him and not ourselves.
I feel that we need to start listening to each others stories also, so that we can get to know each other better. I know that if we do, we will realize that we all have more in common than differences. That we can help each other with our daily struggles. That we can build a community of believers that can reach out to those that have not heard Christ’s name with love and compassion, as He did, and serve them also.
Take a moment right now (after you read this) to think about the fears, the trials, the hurts, that you have in your life. What would happen if you were to truly release them to God? I mean, just pray to God to release them from you. To let your worry form into prayer and you were able to take all that time that you spend worrying and spend it serving Christ by serving others? How much better could the lives around you be?
At that point, you could look and say “What is going on here, Lord?”
