Coming home to America, I felt the immediate need to consume. I tried my hardest to fight this urge but gave in quite a few times because the temptation was so deep. Consume clothing, makeup, jewelry, social media, Netflix, fast food, new hobbies, anything and everything. Why did I want to consume? I wanted to numb. I realized that instead of wanting to be in the fight, I wanted to be as numb and asleep to the issues as possible. I wanted to be a living and breathing potato that skipped this period of life while others suffer and perish outside of my inner circle. It was like when I arrived on the ground here in America I started falling asleep.
All throughout the Old Testament, you see believers in Yahweh ripping their clothes, mourning, shaving their heads, and being in such distress before God because of the state of humanity. You see their hearts breaking and emotion pouring out of their souls because of the evil within themselves and the world. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 reads
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away;7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;8 a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace.”
In each of these verses, King Solomon writes about the alternative to what we consider to be good times and states that there is a time for some kind of pain for about half of our lives. However, in America, we have managed to find a way to numb out and cancel pain by turning off our emotions and our brains to times of mourning, war, breaking down, and weeping. The bible never tells us that joy cannot include seasons of weeping and breaking down. We can be full of peace, hope, and joy while expressing necessary emotions.
In Jesus’ very first sermon, the start of his public ministry, he gets up on a mountain and speaks to a large crowd. The first thing he says to the public is as follows in Matthew 5:3-11
“He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Life might be going well for you or you might be going through the worst season of your life right now. Regardless, I believe we as the church, are in a season of repentance. I think we have been drinking spiritual wine and fattening ourselves in modern culture. We have disregarded the time of mourning. We refuse to be poor in spirit. We deflect any bit of pain or hurt. You may be thinking, why be sad if I have nothing to be sad about? That is the issue. We as the church have EVERYTHING to be sad about. We should be in complete and utter distress in the state of our world. Not because gay marriage is legal or because chick fil a is closed on Sundays. We should be mourning and beating our chests because there are 10 million children trapped in slavery. We should be poor in spirit because human trafficking is one of the largest industries in the world. We should be weeping because part of the church, GOD’S church, has molested, hurt, and broken children. We should be breaking down because world and national leaders who are Christian have assaulted vulnerable women and children. We should be speaking up about the pornography industry even if we sound crazy. This is an industry that is directly linked to rape, targeting children audiences, and human trafficking and 68% of Christian men are ADDICTED to this industry. We as Christians are called to care and fight for the vulnerable and exploited. Instead, we have fallen asleep. We buy our new devos, find the best worship songs, we complain about the coffee the church serves on Sunday’s, we cozy up in our blankets and try to make our walk with Jesus as comfortable as possible. We call ourselves persecuted when we aren’t allowed to hold a gathering because there is a national pandemic. People around the world can get killed for following Christ and we have become so privileged and coddled that we can’t handle a couple of months of doing home church? I am not preaching because I am 300% guilty of making my walk with Jesus about myself when people are being tortured, mutilated, and abused. It is time to speak up. It is time to feel heart break. It is time to break down. We need to feel the pain of reality. We need to remember what our faith is in. We need to remember we joined something bigger than ourselves.
