My morning began with two alarms that went off extremely loud. Unavoidably loud. The first one was my own. I had forgotten to turn the volume down before I went to bed. As soon as it started ringing, even though I was already awake, I rushed to turn it off; then proceeded to pull the covers up over my head.
The second one was going off in another room. I kept hoping the owner would wake up to hit snooze. They didn’t. So I had a decision to make. I could either try to breathe louder and try to think of the sound as a metronome to help me grow in some personal way; or I could ignore the sound and pretend I wasn’t really hearing the annoying noise… or I could get up, and go shut it off myself.
The scenarios reminded me of what is taking place in our lives and our world right now. Globally, this kind of evil has been taking places for hundreds, even thousands of years. America has, until recent years, has seemed exempt from this kind of suffering. Now, with this kind of chaos being so close to home, it makes it much harder to avoid, ignore… Which leaves me with choices. I can choose to turn my mind away from it, and hide. I can choose to acknowledge the suffering is there and hope it will take care of itself. I can decide to try to just allow the noise to become a part of my day-maybe by recognizing that evil really is out will make me a better person… Or I can choose to take action.
We have overslept. I think it is time to quit hitting the snooze button. The time has come to get out of bed with more then ourselves in mind. What action we take will look different for each of us–but the action has to be about more then our own peace of mind, or our own fears and issues.
Isaiah 30 shares some hard truths about what happens when we choose our own wants over God and others. Hearing and believing pleasantries is nice and all, but they will not change our current situation.
“Because you have rejected this message (God’s Word)… sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant….” – Isaiah 30:12-14
Thankfully, our struggling culture doesn’t have to stay this way… “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength… Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.” – Isaiah 30:15-18 (paraphrase)
So, as we choose to get up, the next decision to be made is who’s truth we are going to serve and move from…our own, or God’s?
