It's been around for days now. It's like a backdrop to life when it comes. It doesn't hinder moments of levity and life, a good giggle with a friend, or a smile at something one of my kids says that makes me proud.
Most of the time it's just inside me, heavy, weighting my heart down.
I'm coming to realize it's a part of my spiritual DNA - part of the prophetic/ discerning gift that many don't understand, or even believe exists.
I feel so very aware sometimes of the hurt in the world, inside church and out. I look around and always see the danger signs, the shortcomings, the injustice and hurt that fill the world.
I wish the role of intercessor was as ingrained in me as the awareness of the need, but alas, it is not. I want to do, to fix, to change - it's hard for me to keep silent. And it causes damage.
Sometimes the sadness is clear, and I know exactly what its source is, but more often, like this week, it's just there, in general and I end up making guesses about what it's about. I should never guess because when I do, I almost always make it about me. I feel disqualified, overlooked, I worry about my perceived injustice or rejection.
I spoke with a wise woman yesterday who is extremely discerning. She knows about and believes in all the gifts. The words "prophetic" and "discerning" don't intimidate her or baffle her.
"I've known people with those gifts," she said. "It takes its toll."
She used words like isolating and lonely - and she's right.
My heart grieves for the world around me. The lost, the hurting, the broken. Inside the church and out, they all exist. Often I am very aware that I am one of them.
Following Christ isn't all happiness and strength. On the contrary, suffering and weakness are a very real part of the walk with the Lord. How do I know? Because, His word tells us we are to REJOICE in our sufferings, and it is in our weakness that God's strength is made perfect.
But the sense of sadness never steals the joy - because joy is not emotional, it is deeper and it is abiding. Joy is in the very presence of God.
I am sad today - about a lot of things. But God is good and in Him both my joy and my hope can be found.
Monday, November 11, 2013
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1 comment:
I feel that too, a grieving when no one has died. I think it can be the Holy Spirit's grieving within our spirit, over specific sins (ours or others'), specific emotional or physical pain (ours or others'), grief over the direction our country is taking and the fact that we as a nation have brought this deserved judgment on ourselves--through arrogance, unbelief, idolatry, greed, selfishness, disobedience, the shedding of innocent blood.
I believe you and I are called to this ministry, a gift of tears for injustice and unrighteousness. I too often feel this heaviness without any explanation--and I wonder if it happens in times of disasters like the recent typhoon in the Philippines, that we may wake hurting desperately without knowing that it is for people we don't even yet know are suffering.
Like the "gift of singleness," who wants it? But somehow I believe it accomplishes something in the spiritual realm, is helping express repentance or bringing cleansing and healing at a very deep level.
One can hope so, anyway. There must be a point to it!
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