only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
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 him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"--Isaiah 58:5-7
If that's not convicting, I don't know what is.
Oh, He is speaking to me. I like to humble myself for a day, or for a few hours, and then go on with my life. I am wrestling so much with myself because I know it's wrong. I hate the part of myself that allows me to do that. To think about the number of pages I need to read for class the next day, to worry about a paper, about friends' drama, about so many little, insignificant things.
When right down the street a girl is locked up in a massage parlor. Yoked to a life of pain, poverty, hopelessness, and indescribable heartache and emptiness.
The God of this universe has offered me life and offered it abundantly. He offers me freedom. Hope. Joy. Innumerable things. But it's not just about what He offers. It's about His calling. And He has called me to humble myself and seek justice on behalf of those without a voice. Without hope. Without Him. To break their chains. To fight the good fight.
It's not just about trafficking. The oppressed encompasses so much more than that. But that's what's on my mind right now after Dr. Silver's powerful presentation on sex trafficking right here in Macon. I don't know why it hit me harder now than hearing about it before, but it did.
God does not delight in my metaphorical fasting. My singing to Him. My praying. My thoughts. My temporary eagerness. That is not the kind of fasting he calls for. He explicitly states what he desires, and if you go on to read the rest of that chapter, he explicitly states the results of doing so.
Okay, pause button. I'm not saying God's love for me depends on what I do. I think as His child, He delights in me. He sings over me. I delight in Him. But what I think I'm trying to say is it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop with church, with campus organizations, with singing, thinking, praying. It doesn't stop there. God calls us to act. Faith without deeds is dead.
I'm rambling, I know. And I am not finished with this Blog, but I have to go. I hope my rambling mess makes some sense to you.
And I pray: Love, save the empty.
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