“In all the world has there ever been such sorrow? O daughter of Jerusalem, to what can I compare your anguish? O virgin daughter of Zion, how can I comfort you? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?” Lamentations 2:13
When you wonder if you are doing enough, giving enough for Him who gave everything, did everything.
So many starving, homeless, and hurting people surround me and I wonder if I am doing enough. Then again when did enough become good enough? It only becomes good enough when the enough has become everything.
This burden and brokenness of doing more, it doesn’t go away, instead it increases, it deepens when you see the smile on the faces of those He has helped. That’s joy, true joy, joy that I crave, joy that is given freely by Him, His grace.
It is enough when taken, it is more than enough, because everything He has and is, is more than enough, it is everything.
He brings me back to the 27 million chained to slavery. I can see them, the chains; their marks left on me are a constant reminder of what He did for me, how He set me free; free from sin, death, and more.
I can see the chains still wrapped around the arms of those enslaved to hunger, fear, abuse, sin, loneliness, and worldliness. And it causes me to look at my scars and my heart breaks. How can I do more, give more, for Him for them.
They grow tighter, those chains, they grow tighter and become heavier. I see them on the girls around the world enslaved to sex-trafficking, to women enslaved to their husbands who in some countries are free to beat them, hurt them, use them, and leave them. Those chains, tight and heavy are even strapped on girls and women in America.
For many, those chains were put on by others, but for a lot they put the chains on themselves, hoping that love came with those chains. When will it be enough, when will His love be enough, it is everything, His love, isn’t it?
I see so many bearing the chains of slavery, some of them are women dressed beautifully who sit in church. Others walk the streets, the aisles of Walmart, even the halls of school, bearing those chains of slavery.
Captivity is what slavery really means, and it just so happens that there is One who is able to set the captives free. Christ!
His death, His blood, His resurrection! It sets us free. It can set them free. But they have to see, from us, who bear the scars, not the chains, but the scars. They have to see Him in those scars.
Help, aid, love, the Word, consistency, His blood, and the Cross. They each need to see, hear, and know about each of them, that hope lies within them and that He offers it freely to them. For then enough becomes everything.
Who will go? I will go Lord, send me.
“Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Lord, I’ll go! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8
