Grief for our Nation

Today's news made me grieve, and it made me angry.  The city of Albuquerque voted yesterday to keep allowing late term (after 20 weeks) abortions.  According to one individual who voted for the proposal, "Women have the right to choose what to do to their body." (http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131120/DAA66KB01.html)

I find it ludicrously ironic that  most of the other news I read tells me that I DO NOT have the right to choose what to do to my body.  I must feed it whole grains, exercise every day, visit the doctor and keep my cholesterol and weight down.  I must stay away from nicotine, trans fats, sugar, and secondhand smoke.  At every juncture someone, somewhere, is persistently telling me what to do and what not to do to my body.

And I grieve deep within my soul for people who are so aggressively determined to turn away from the God who created them and loves them and died for them.  I grieve for those who have believed Satan's lie that you are master of your own fate, that your desires and needs should be all you give attention to, and that life has no ultimate meaning.  May God have mercy on us.

Let us examine our ways and test them,
    and let us return to the Lord.

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
    to God in heaven, and say:

“We have sinned and rebelled
    and you have not forgiven.

 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
    you have slain without pity.

You have covered yourself with a cloud
    so that no prayer can get through.

You have made us scum and refuse
    among the nations.

“All our enemies have opened their mouths
    wide against us.

We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
    ruin and destruction.”

Streams of tears flow from my eyes
    because my people are destroyed.

My eyes will flow unceasingly,
    without relief,

until the Lord looks down
    from heaven and sees.

What I see brings grief to my soul
    because of all the women of my city.

(Lamentations 3:40-51)

Be Light

I found myself getting angry the other day, which really
doesn't happen very often.  In the midst of the anger, I bit my tongue and didn't say (thankfully!) the things that were racing through my mind to the person who had been the source of my anger.  When I was alone, I started talking to God.  "God, I know I shouldn't hold on to any anger, but right now, I'd like to be angry, just for a minute.  This person gets on my nerves and seems to enjoy pushing my buttons.  I don't want to be all sweetness and light around him!"

My anger vanished when God drew me up short with the immediate quiet voice.  "I never asked you to be all sweetness and light.  I only asked you to be light."

Dear Jesus, shine your light on me and erase the darkness still in my heart.  Then shine through me, to those who need You most.