10.14.2008

early morning thoughts...

We have six children and last night, I'm not sure if we ever had more than four asleep at any given time. That 2:3 sleep ratio is just not acceptable, although I finally gave up and came out on the couch with my Bible, so perhaps it was all for a good cause.

There's a lot to read about all that's wrong with our nation right now and who are the right people to fix it. I make no bones about being partisan, however, sitting here on the blue comfy couch, in a darkened room with a strong cup of Brazilian, I can quietly admit that there is not a person up for election than can truly fix our mess.

That's not to say that I don't have preferences (and believe that I'm right!), but we're working awfully hard to treat the symptoms of economic collapse, war, even genocide on our children, without attacking the root of the problem - we are a people with dark hearts, and if our sin of choice is legislated out of practicality, we will move on to another. It's who we are and what we do.

The world has not seen a truly righteous leader in 2000 years, and we killed Him when we last saw Him. That act revealed the heart of man more clearly than any other in history, and while we may have perfected the rubber tire and invented the circuit board since then, we haven't been able to fix our heart condition. It remains unlegislatable, uncontrolled, and unreconciled. That's the tension we live in.

I ran across a passage in Ezekiel 36 this morning that made my heart jump, though. It's the promise of God addressing the real issues of our society.

Ezekiel 36:26,27
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees...


Father God, we ask that You would move quickly in your work of divine heart transplant, wooing us by Your Spirit to do that which is right. Without Your sovereign initiative, we are forever cursed with stone cold hearts and self made wills. Move us, God. Move us to follow you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. An excellent reflection and exhortation.

The LORD is in the wings it seems, and 'we the people' must bring Him into the center. Our focus is on the mundane. Our motivation is misguided. Our hope is in the corruptible.

We need new hearts and as Romans 12:2 says we also need new minds. Our motives and our process must be realigned, recalculated, and refocused.