April 25, 2007

• Cutting Through the Numbness

  Last week when I woke up to discover what had happened at Virginia Tech, I was shocked.  I didn't know how to feel.  I prayed for my friends and for the university, but I didn't feel much power in the prayer.  I felt distant and numb.  It wasn't until the next day when I was reflecting on some e-mails and xangas from friends at Tech that God, in His grace, broke through the numbness and touched my heart.  As the Holy Spirit ministered to me I was able to feel the pain, confusion, and sense of overwhelming that my Tech friends were feeling.  And so I was able to pray deeper, more powerful prayers.  I could feel the difference. 

  As I thought about it, I realized it was numbness that allowed the student to kill so many so mercilessly.  It is also numbness that allows starvation, injustice, genocide, and other atrocities to continue in the world.  People are simply numb to the pain in the world.  The Holy Spirit is often characterized by heat/fire.  When the Spirit is present, emotions and senses are usually at a higher level/awareness.  Evil is often characterized by coldness.  The colder we feel, the more numb we become to pain.  Soon we feel nothing and can do even the worst of things without a second thought.

  If numbness is a struggle for you, pray and ask for God's touch.  "'Is not my word like fire?' declares the Lord, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'" It is only His touch that can break open the hardest heart and truly set us free.  He is good.   

  Hillsong - None But Jesus

  • 9:29 am
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