My heart is heavy tonight. I feel weary. Could be my schedule lately… or it could be I’m hormonal; you never know. All I know is that I felt myself holding back tears this evening when I told my sweetie that I think my heart will break if I see one more poor soul in an orange jumpsuit.
I know that bad things happen to innocent people every day. And I know that every day God hears the cries of the hurting. But I’m not aware of it in my little world. And I know that that’s largely because I seek to avoid it.
But I watch the news almost every day, just to stay current with politics, really. So the worst of the the headlines are inescapable, try as I might.
Burying my head in the sand? Maybe a little. But some of us are just more sensitive than others.
I had a discussion with a friend the other day, about whether people are worse ~ more evil or more sinful ~ than in times past. Or do we just know about it more because the world is “smaller”? I don’t know. But as I was thinking today about people who are victims of terrorists, I found myself thinking about people who were the victims of the Nazis. And then I found myself thinking about children who are the victims of abortions. Same evil; different victim.
I didn’t live at the time of the Holocaust, but even if I did, I don’t know how much I would have been aware. Not everyone was. I do live in the time of abortions, but I rarely think about it. It’s horrific to think about, but it’s an overwhelming problem. Literally overwhelming. So I block it from my mind and console myself with the truth that these children rest in the arms of their Creator.
What’s missing from my thinking, my rationalizing, and my heart ~ is prayer. To not think about, is to not pray. To not know about, is to not pray.
I wasn’t choosing to not pray. But I should have been making a more conscious choice. I should not be a passive participant in the events of the world around me. That doesn’t mean I need to seek them out, but really, do I need to be told that there is evil in the world? Do I need the news to inform me that people are hurting and suffering and dying?
Light Expectations 