This is the Word for all who languish in solitary
prisons real or imagined, who faint from sorrow and suffering, whose light in
life flickers and grows dim. This is also the Word that comes as a light to expose
the thoughts and ways and deeds that conspire to blind people to the truth and shroud
the world in darkness. This Word is as gentle as a whisper, as soft as a mother’s
caress, as persistent as a deep desire and as compelling as a well told tale.
It stirs hearts and animates lives to action as it fills imaginations with hopes and dreams
of all that is good and right and beautiful and true. But it is a Word that has
to be heard to be believed which means we have to be stilled to hear it and
humbled to accept it. The trouble is we tend to buy into the lottery ticket
life where all that glitters really is gold and our luck is about to change
even if the ship we were counting on to come in just sank in the harbor. But what
if we were to give up on the world’s way of winning and live more fully into
the light of the life that God desires. If the Word does not break our bruised reed
we should not be so ready to break bones with sticks and stones. If the Word
does not quench our dimly burning wick we should not be so quick to extinguish
the flickering faith of others. If the Word does not shout in the streets we
might accomplish more by speaking our conviction with gentleness and respect. (1
Peter 3:15) If the Word is persistent and does not grow faint then we should
not be crushed by disappointment or detours. In the end God will make all
things new and the brightest and best dreams will come true so we, like the
Word, speak of the new things that will spring forth and declare with confident hope what will be
before it is.
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