Denied

By Scott Wetzel

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”  Is. 58:6-9 (NIV)

I’m going to make a confession to you.  My heart is intact.  Way too intact.  In fact, I believe most of our hearts are way too intact.  You might think that’s a good thing.  Obviously, we’re healthy if our hearts are intact, right?  Nope.  We might be in a healthy place and in a healthy marriage relationship.  We might be in a healthy church community or a healthy lifestyle.  But if our hearts are intact, we are unhealthy spiritually.

Look around…REALLY look around.  Can we put on spiritual goggles for a minute?  We’ve got people on virtually every corner holding cardboard signs asking for help.  Some of these people might be scam artists; some might not be.  But it doesn’t really matter what WE think.  These people need Jesus.  Every couple of miles we have young women exploiting their own bodies to sell $4 lattes.  We can call them all sorts of names, question their lifestyle and wrinkle our brows at their loose morals.  But it doesn’t matter what WE think.  These people need Jesus.  There are Wall Street tycoons, bankers and politicians taking and spending our hard earned dollars on lavish things, mind altering substances and illicit relationships.  We can yell and protest and name call all we want.  But it doesn’t matter what WE think.  These people need Jesus.

An intact heart is a sign that our human nature is winning.  Galatians 5:17 tells us that the Holy Spirit is always in conflict with our natural desires.  This is because our natural desires are to do what serves us, as individuals, best.  We know that we’re allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us when we see and do things that are less about us and more about everyone else. That means we deny our self interests most of the time.  God is ultimately concerned about His body as an entire being.  To be Godly minded is to be community minded. To be community minded means that we help the people around us that are hurting. 

Here’s the kicker-we don’t always know who is hurting.  That means we need to be a light to EVERYONE we meet.  I know that’s a hard concept to grasp and that doesn’t mean we don’t have bad days.  It means that we see everyone, regardless of their past or present situation, as fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator.  Then we treat them that way.   Jesus chose to reach out to prostitutes over Pharisees and lepers over the priesthood.  Are we, as the Church Universal, doing that?  We should be letting our hearts break for those in less than desirable situations and begin to make change.  When our hearts break for the broken hearted, I believe Jesus will heal our communities.