In The Wake of Destruction

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Joel 2:12-14

“Even now,” declares the LORD,
   “return to me with all your heart,
   with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 

 Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
   for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity.
 Who knows? He may turn and have pity
   and leave behind a blessing—

Today I have been reading the book of Joel. In that book the writer describes an invasion of locust on the agricultural community of his day. He say that nothing has ever happened like this before in his life or in the memory of his forefathers.  In one resource that I was reading this morning as I thought about these passages it described it not as a one time event but a cycle over a year or more in length. The locust came in waves they would lay eggs and before long another wave would come. One after another the harvests would ripen and be destroyed. In one passage he speaks to the drunkards and drinkers of wine and tells them to wail because the new wine has been snatched from your lips. In another passage that seems poignant it says "The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods."   In another "How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep are suffering.  It paints some vivid pictures and brings to mind for me in our times tusnami, hurricanes and earthquakes and the devastation left in their wake. We witness through the window of our tv's the end of life as they knew it for other people. If they survive their life will never be the same as it was. Yes the survivors will pick up the pieces. You hear stories of people who have endured flood or fire and how in the light of those losses they realize the value of the people they love. Those who's loved ones are not lost, rejoice and re-examine their priorities. Home becomes not a place to hang your hat but the people who are dearest to you.

Joel who says of what he writes: "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel". This is not just some historic account but in and through it God is speaking. In more than one place in the bible locusts are seen as the judgement of God. Ex 10:12; Joel 1:4; Rev 9:3. What do we do with the judgement of God in our 'Jesus is my buddy and pal' kind of mentality of the church of our day. While that familiarity is wonderful and I encourage people to a personal relationship with Jesus. I wonder that we sometimes loose sight of his awesome might and power. My point is that sometimes in that familiarity we forget the wonder and power the holiness of God. Do you tremble in His presence?
Jeremiah 5:12 Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.

Who do we blame for devastation?  Is it the judgement of God upon people who's hearts were hard. Is it just the natural effects of how we have cared for the planet that we live or simply part of a natural cycle of earth changes.  We want to draw black and white conclusion and often the lines are fuzzy.
We want to know where was God when this bad thing happened? Who is to blame for this we demand. As if knowing will some how justify or bring back that which was lost.

In this book this devastation is said to be from the Lord upon a people who have repeatedly turned from him. Joel cries out them to not just follow the convention of grieving of that day to rip their garments and go about in rags. He tells them rend your hearts. Does your heart break over the things that breaks the heart of God?  God is not looking for ritualistic outward change from us. He wants our hearts to change. I am convinced that our hearts do not change with out being found in his presence regularly. I don't understand the actions and motivations of a stranger. How can I understand God if I do not spend time with him in the pages of his Word or time with him in Worship or in Prayer.

Some of you are facing devastation of life as you know it. Perhaps its the loss of a loved one, a divorce, mental illness, financial ruin, personal illness, perhaps a fire, or a car wreck or any number of things. In this moment you know that your life as you have known it has changed. 

I do know that we serve a God who is just. He does not just turn his head and ignore sin and its effects. He can't simply excuse some and punish others - to do so would negate justice. Justice must be served and we all have sinned and fallen short of his glory.  It is not only that 'Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so'. He does, in that love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Jesus leaves heaven and comes to earth and takes the place in the judgement that we each deserve. He makes a way that we might return to a right relationship with God. It is through his sacrifice. He forces it on no one, we are at liberty to choose to accept what he has provided or not. It is not that he comes to condem us, we stand condemned already. (John 3:18).  The poison of sin in our lives is working and it is only a matter of time before it finally leads to death. A loving God sends us an antidote. We have to decide if we will use it or not.

I am not here to say if the things you are facing are necessarily Gods judgement. They may simply be the out come of your choices and decisions or the decisions of others. We live in a fallen world and we feel the effects of sin upon it. What you are facing may be a demonic attack. I can't draw that line in the sand for you. I can encourage you to turn to God - hear what He would say to you.  Most often change is brought about in a violent sort of way. In a sense we come to the end of our self sufficiency, when everything we know to do has come up empty - we turn to God in our desperation.
 We have in that moment the opportunity to go down in dispare and accept the verdict or the diagnosis or we can turn to God and receive his instruction.  I have over many years watched how people respond to destruction. They will allow it to propel them further in God as they overcome,  or they will shake their fist and blame God for their troubles and be consumed by them.

How about you will you identify with the verdict before you, that you are done for, your life is over, and hopeless beyond repair? Or will you reach out to God who loves you and who is bigger than all your problems. Will you come to that place of realizing your desperate need for Him in every part of our life. Yes he could perhaps have kept the bad things from happening in the first place but over and over I see him receive glory in taking what is devastated and bringing restoration. It is often a long journey as we learn to see our selves through his eyes and in the light of his purposes.
What does God say about you? What is his verdit? Who's report will you believe?
We can't always say why things happen but we can choose how we will respond.

Today what ever you are facing big or small turn to God and allow him to come in and give you His direction. 

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know the circumstances and the things readers are facing today. Life can at times becomes overwhelming and out of control. There are those moments in life when we realize that everything we knew or thought we knew has changed. There is no going back and the choice before us is to go down in defeat or to turn to you in the midst of the crisis. Help us Lord to not just tear our garments in some religious display of piety or false humility but to truly turn to you and accept you as our Lord and Savior who loves us. Help us to realize that if we allow you, you will come in to the middle of what ever we are facing and show us your plan, your purpose and your direction. We invite you Lord to come in to our life and its circumstances. Help us to see where we need to change. Help us to walk out those changes, decision by decision, one step at time. Help us to become not to identify with what we are in this moment but to begin to see all that you would have us to become.

Known by the Scars - Forgiving Ourselves

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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 Psalm 103:10–14

10  He does not deal with us 

according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11  For as high as the heavens 

are above the earth,

so great 

is his steadfast love 

toward those who fear him;

12  as far as the east 

is from the west,

so far does he remove 

our transgressions from us.

13  As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion 

to those who fear him.

14  For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust. 

 

He remembers that we are dust....

I had a difficult day and have accomplished very little. All day I have had a sinus headache that nothing has seemed to touch. Made of dust and afflicted by dust or pollin or mold maybe the change in the atmosphere. I don't know what my problem has been today but I am glad that the Lord knows my frame. He knows that I have good days and I have day that I struggle. I know that the Lord shows compassion to me but it is very hard for me to give myself much grace. I am always pushing myself in one way or another. I should have just gone back to bed today but I kept trying to get my head together and I wandered through my day in a painful kind of fog.  I'm still dealing with the lingering effects of it. 

 

This may not be my most inspired post, but someone suggested that I write about forgiving ourselves for the past. So I find myself sitting here wondering if there are things that I have not forgiven myself for from the past. I don't like those kinds of probing questions. If someone were to ask me a question like that I would find a way to turn the focus of the discussion off of myself. The questions would linger and bother me for a while until I could figure out why. The past is very fuzzy to me. I think because when I have been through traumatic or difficult things I have always had to be the strong one. Maybe I have not needed to be but I thought that I had to play that role. It is often very long afterwards that I get around to processing things.  I suppose I have not really forgiven myself for all the things I have stuffed and blocked and chosen not to deal with. I am thankful that the Lord is very patient with me and in some quiet moment He will take me and help me see some neglected place that I have not really let Him into. I'm also thankful that He does not make me do too much navel gazing. When He does it is with great compassion, and understanding. He knows I am dust.

 

It is difficult to forgive ourselves when we have fallen short of our own expectations, feel we have failed God or the people we love. If we don't forgive others we open ourselves up to torment. You might read The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant and remember that the story ends with the following comment."This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." That story is about us needing to forgive others the way the Lord forgives us. Most of us can at least agree that we should forgive even if we are not always able to. I generally tell people who are stuck and unable to forgive someone that forgiving them does not mean that what they did to you was ok, it does not trivialize the wrong of it. It does acknowledge that you understand that the Lord has forgiven you and to follow Him I must forgive those who have wronged us in some way.  

The topic however is not about forgiving others but is about forgiving ourselves. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. When we choose Jesus we don't get what we deserve. You may feel you've been dealt a lousy hand in the game of life. Some of the things that happen to us are not fair. Some things leave scars that don't go away. The wound will heal but the scars remain to tell the story. I'm reminded of an old song called Known By The Scars by Michael Card. The chorus says "The marks of death that God chose never to erase. The wounds of loves eternal war. When the kingdom comes with its perfected sons. He will be known by the scars. 

 

I sometimes wonder why God just does not step in and prevent us from getting damaged and broken in the first place. I've concluded that before we were broken we didn't think we needed Him. We were convinced that we could handle things on our own. My thoughts turn to think of my own brokenness and how God so tenderly takes all the shattered pieces and lovingly takes what seems to be hopelessly beyond repair and puts it together in a new way. That is one of the reasons I love making mosaics. They give me hope. I can take broken stuff and turn it into something beautiful. God the master artist does that with us. Once we come to the end of our self sufficiency and humbly admit we need help, He steps in to help us.  

I look at my own scars and wonder if I am somehow defined or known by them. They are a reminder not just of the things that caused the brokenness but more so of all the places that the Lord has healed. To some those scars may seem to be ugly, shameful things, to be hidden. I know I have looked at my own battered heart with distain at times. What would God want with something so mangled and broken. I am coming to see that those scars must be somehow beautiful to the Lord. They are marks of death that He has chosen not to erase.

 

I know that I often minister out of my brokenness. Its not me but God who pours his compassion out to others. Because of my own scars, I can understand, I can be trusted. I think there is something to being known by our scars. People with similar scars seem to be able to connect in a deeper way. Its an odd thing. God delights to use broken vessels. So great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 

 

I don't know if my post has touched a nerve for you or not. If the Lord is speaking to you about something take the time to let Him in. He can be trusted. Sometimes the process of healing can be painful. Wounds that need cleaned and stitched. Bones that need to be set. Sometimes limbs must be removed. There may even be echos of what has been lost or removed. I'm not sure they ever go away, forgiveness and repentance make them less painful but they seem to be another kind of scar.  

Prayer:

Dear Lord, 

We come to you broken, wounded, and damaged. Its a mix of things that has caused it. Some of it is our own fault some the fault of others.  Lord we don't begin to know how to fix it. It has in many cases taken us a long time to give up on our own devices to fix our selves and to finally turn to you. Will you come now and mend and heal us. Will you come and restore hearts, minds and bodies that are damaged by the battlefield of the fallen world we live in. Will you make a way where there seems to be no way. Help us to forgive others, thank you for forgiving us and help us to release it now and forgive ourselves. Will you come and make the rough places smooth. Will you help us to not look at the scars with disdain but with thankfulness for your tender mercies, your grace and your love.