A Crying Shame

What's the last thing that really made you cry?  I was disappointed when the Celtics lost to the Heat… but I didn't cry.  I was frustrated when the tail pipe rusted loose from the muffler on my truck… but I didn't cry.  I'm disgusted, appalled, infuriated, etc. as I read headlines about social injustice, economic corruption, moral depravity, etc… but I don't cry.  Maybe I need to be a little more like Micah.

Looking at the social and moral decay in his homeland of Israel, and having received the Word of God about coming judgment, the prophet said this: "I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.  For her wound is incurable; it has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself."

I know a lot of American Christians* (including myself!) who gripe & complain, rant & rave, spit & sputter about the social, economic and moral ills of our nation & world. But I have a hard time recalling the last time any of us were truly brokenhearted before God to the point of weeping, mourning, fasting & praying over it.

Now, being the good ol' premillennial dispensationalist that I am, I do realize, like Micah did in his day, that things are generally going to get worse before they get better.  But I also realize that's no excuse for not caring about the way things are.

I've been convicted by Micah's weeping… and even by the "Patriotic Prayer & Praise Service" I've been planning for church on July 1.  I know one guy like me can't change the world with a few tears.  But if I can be a little less self-righteously indignant and a little more spiritually sensitive to the sins of society, perhaps, like Micah, I'll be more likely to actually make a difference for God.



*Or should that be "Christian Americans"?  Maybe we've got it backwards, and that's half the problem.  Anyway, perhaps a topic for another post someday.