Have You Ever Felt the Weight?

In honor of the 1009 survivors in Katanga, Gitare, Mbege, and Langalanga, Kenya.

Have you ever felt the weight? The sheer weight of the destitute, surrounding you, holding on to you, hoping you will take the pain away? Hands cracked with labor, the dirt of hard-hoed gardens under fingernails long blackened with reality. Coats mended so many times the stitches march like uneven words telling stories of terror, loss, and hunger. Feet split and thickened like leathery boats, accustomed to hard earth with no shoes. 

Have you ever felt the weight? The mocking weight of foolishness as you stand infinitesimal before immeasurable need? The cackling weight of stupidity as you declare the invisible truths of the invisible God made visible in Jesus Christ to people who want food and education for their children? The weight of unseen power made seen in your life, as you stand here on your two feet, knowing that you were meant by evil to be dead, yet you live, declaring the glory of the God who remains with the broken and raises them to life? 

Have you ever felt the weight of a life purposed to stand before the dying and declare He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? And that this living is temporary, yes, this is temporary– we are practicing for heaven, and this pain is so fleeting, this impossible hunger will one day be filled with the Possible made secure on a wooden cross by a dying Man who was truly God. 

One day, my sisters, all this weight will be translated into a weight of glory that the world has never measured. This pain, this loss, this darkness, will be transformed into the weight of His glory, for we are the planting of the Lord! Every planted seed must die. As it dies, it is in darkness, shedding the outward form of what once was. Yet inside, there is life that cannot be stopped, and if this seed dies, it will bear much fruit. Yes, Lord, we will die for You! 

Have you ever felt the weight of seed-death? It is the weight of sorrow, the weight of hunger, the weight of poverty, yet it is a chance to die, an invitation to trust in the weight of the foolishness God has chosen to overcome the world. He has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are. For He is God and He will raise us to life on that day! We will fly with Him. We will be weightless even as the weight of His glory anchors us for eternity.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Mwathani Agosho! Hallelujah! Amen.

@audreycfrank