My Heart Longs

My heart has been dark these days. Sometimes, I look up from my self-absorbed, comfortable life and, as if the scales have fallen from my eyes, I see pain. I see hatred. I see sadness. And I cannot let it go.

I know of a pastor in this area from the Democratic Republic of Congo. If you haven't heard about the atrocities there, you can read about it here. His family - mom, dad, sibling, friends. . . are trapped. They are afraid of the bullets, afraid of the cholera from the refugee camps.

There are . . . have been death threats on the President-elect.

One of Boo's little friends from Nursery school was diagnosed with leukemia on Friday. It's the "better" kind of leukemia to have. He started chemo right away. This 6 year old boy has an 80% chance. 80%. That's not good enough for his mom and dad. His grandparents. Aunts, uncles, friends.

Hatred snarls, teeth bared, mouth foaming, and roams the earth. Tears brim my eyes and drip into the dark cavity in my chest. I look up to my left, up to the right, the enemies hover the land. I have but two choices: despair or trust. Despair or Trust.

My heart despairs, but the Spirit within me Trusts Him who reigns:

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son,
but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give
us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It
is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than
that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding
for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship
or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - from Romans 8

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. - Psalm 143:8

I pray for the people across the sea, across the savanna in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sudan and Uganda as war and cholera rage. I pray for this country. What kind of a country would assassinate their own president?! I pray for the little boy up the street, his mom, his dad.

I know You are True. . .I need You to be True.
Where else do we turn?

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