Sadness (part 1) ?Don?t be a Cow?
The other night (as many nights recently) the baby woke up crying. She?s been teething for what seems like months now and still no sign of those new chompers. For the most part, I?ve weaned her from middle of the night feedings, but when she?s screaming for over an hour at 2 am and I?m wondering how much longer the other 2 gremlins (Mia and Addie) are going to stay asleep with all the noise, there truely is only one thing that calms her ? and it?s attached to me! Soooo- needless to say I broke down and offered the suffering child her demands. The minute I did she relaxed and fell asleep next to me. Unfortunately, 2-3 seconds later the fire whistles began to sound. Since I only live a block up from the fire station you can imagine the intensity.
Usually the fire whistle only sounds once or twice but this night they went on and on and on. I had happened to glance at the clock when I brought Maylee down and again when the whistles finally stopped. 23 minutes had passed from the end of the crying /beginning of the fire whistles to the end of the fire whistles.
As all the noise was interrupting my sleep, I believe God was speaking to my heart about sadness. As the baby screamed and cried for so long all I could think of was the pain of so many in the world today who do not have an outlet like Maylee. I thought of those who won?t cry out loud and those who?ve given up. I thought also of those who rage at others without reason. Those who have no one they trust enough to love or no one that they feel truely loves them. When I think about people who?ve committed suiside my only rationale for their end is that they simply did not know or understand how much they were loved.
When the fire whistles started I lay looking at my sleeping child ? whose sleep was, at this point, as fragile as an ice cube in boiling water, and I thought, how can she sleep? How can Mia and Addie STILL be sleeping? How aobut my husband? He?s RIGHT NEXT to me and he?s still sleeping!
As the noise continued my thoughts strayed to things such as my sisterhood of dairy cows and whether they sleep much, etc?lol But when the noise stopped and the 23 minutes had passed ? it put me in mind of the 23rd psalm.
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name?s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
God was speaking to me about sadness. He was speaking to me about walking through the valleys of death during our lives. There are so many people who walk these valleys alone because there is no one reaching out and waking up to hear and help them. The Lord convicted me because there are many people I would rather not deal with who are among those hurting the most. I CHOOSE to sleep while they scream because their noise is irritating to me. It is the noise of personal attack, persecution or just plain annoyance toward myself.
Why should I hear such ones? Because many of them are they who are lost without Christ?s solace to run and hide in. THEY are those with no outlet as Maylee has in me. Those who are hardest to love seem to need the most love. And I?m still sleeping.
Whenever I was younger(thought I?d never say that), every time I?d hear a fire alarm I?d begin to pray for those for whom it sounded. In the fires of our lives ? in the valleys ? in the most difficult /awkward/unpleasant situations ? that is where we must pray most. Not only for ourselves or self preservation, but for those who?ve done everything in their power to corner us into and keep us in those situations through nothing else but their own faithlessness toward Jesus Christ.
ALL sin results from a lack of faith and we?ve only ONE enemy ? the Devil.
People who cause problems and heartache for us in this temporal life are unknowingly sounding an alarm for us to wake up. Maybe they just need love. Maybe God is using them to work out patience and perseverance in us. Who knows why? I don?t know why there has to be such pain and strife in this world but I do know WHAT I should do about it. I have to help others learn to flee to and lean on the everlasting arms of Christ. I have to share the gospel in such a way that they cry out for Christ to pick them up and feed them the only food that will satisfy. I have to help others see that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is DESIRABLE. I cannot retaliate because Christ did not retaliate. I cannot try to sleep even if their cries and sirens are irritating and offensive to me. Even if I do I will end up laying awake thinking about what a cow I am for ignoring the opportunities the Lord has afforded me to grow in love, patience and ministry toward others.
Don?t be a cow. Wake up and love someone.