Tales of brokenness

In the many stories of men and women who trusted their God in the Bible, there is a parallel shared in the way that they revealed their intense emotions about what they felt and were going through, and equally in their hope for a satisfying answer during trials. We may reason that God was the only solace these people had, and to them, the only and last hope. It fascinates me that one such person went on to write that should they fail to remember God and Jerusalem as their chief joy, may their tongue cling to the roof of their mouths (Psalm 137:6). Or consider the woman, who repeatedly pleaded her case with tears and brokenness for a child she didn’t have, every year, in once place, doing the same thing! (I Samuel 1).

What drives a human being to be so intensely emotional and to spiritually bare their true self in a manner that shows no concern with what others may think? Gender dynamics were never an issue in these cases especially when a man had to cry out to another man, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10: 47).

We know that for us humans, it is either you love, or you do not. There is no grey area. And because we are made with the ability to be intense, whatever we choose, we give it our all, be it human, material or a deity. But there are moments as they will surely come of separation, of forgetfulness, that may culminate in a loss of relationship with what we love. To some, it is caused by pain, some a momentary distraction, and yet some a memory lapse perhaps caused by lack of investment in time that was initially offered to what they love over a period of time.

The heart in its nature does not choose what it loves for sport. We call those achievements, as soon as one is in the bag; we are on to the next one. But God is not an achievement; essentially, love is not an achievement but devotion. It is us being sold (souled) out to one person and to a cause.

Where would we look in order to remember? I point out to LOVE, to GOD. Love is expressive, and love has a home, love belongs and love is meant to grow and to sustain. If a seed is left in the dry ground to only receive nourishment from seasonal rains, it may not grow or even thrive as the one that receives constant nourishment, because beautiful gardens have regular and enthusiastic garden keepers.

Love unexpressed – love without a home – love stunted, is the inability to breathe as naturally as we have been designed to. In this unfortunate circumstance, it is like blowing your air in a paper bag in a moment of panic only to have the air sucked back into your lungs again during the frantic and repetitious act of trying to get a release from the tightness building up in your chest. The opposite is also true, love expressed is freeing, satisfying and promising. Just as remembering to love God stimulates our minds to action and inspires our hopes, to consciously remember may clarify the question as to why and how other people manage to love with so much abandon. When we love, we forget about and lose ourselves in the act, but when we fear, we want to remember ourselves more. We do so because we think that losing ourselves will banish us to into oblivion.

Patience Noah (1 June 2017)

Scripture references are taken from The New International Version (NIV) Bible