non-metaphysical stephen

Thought from today’s Bible Reading:  When Isaiah said “Send me!”, did he know the message was going to be so dark?

From Isaiah 8.8-13:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
and the Lord removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

Things have been hectic lately, and I’ve been feeling very little motivation to deal with any of them: school, family, relationships, church. It’s not quite the blahs, since it’s so busy, but the end effect is the same–I don’t want to do anything.

The image I’ve had in my head is of drowning–not in the fighting for my life kind of way, but in the over my head kind of way, maybe more like the frog who calmly boils to death as the heat rises. I’m trying to keep my head above water, but part of me just wants to let it wash over me and take me with the current.

I am reminded of a story I heard once about a businessman who was stressed out until God reminded him that God had seen Christ Jesus through every thing He had to deal with, and surely would do the same for the businessman. If God has given himself for us so completely, if God has shown that he can see one man through an entire lifetime without sin, surely this same God can and will see us through all the details of our lives?

Isaiah 43.2:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.

I will not drown. Like the Hebrews leaving Egypt and like their descendants entering Canaan, I can walk into the water and not drown. Like Jonah in the ocean, I need not worry about the sea, for God is my promise, my hope, and my salvation. There is nothing in my life too big for God to handle or too small for God’s concern.

Thanks be to God.