Monday, June 15, 2020

When a Warrior Weeps

 
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Psalm 126:5-6

Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.  They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.

Those who care passionately about people weep.  In a previous post I wrote: 
The text indicates that the sower goes forth and bears the seed; but he also weeps over it.  Do you weep over insignificant things, or precious?  I see weeping over lost loved ones, straying prodigals, health reversals and lost fortunes.
So, why the weeping?  The sower knows the seed must die before it can produce anything worthwhile.  Jesus said that plainly:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.  John 12:24

In that passage Jesus was predicting his death on the cross for our benefit.  It was a short time before the cross, and Jesus understood the cost of saving rebellious humankind from eternal death.  And that is why he wept in Gethsemane; Jesus was so moved with compassion for us he sweat great drops of blood.  These were the tears of his soul, longing for our redemption and squeezing every last ounce of caring for self and safety out of his system…and it was for us.

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  Luke 22:44

I think of presidents making unpopular decisions, knowing it might cost their political career, or personal reputation…but doing it anyway because it’s the right thing to do.
I think of a father scooping up his three-year-old from the middle of the street; the child howls with anger because she wanted to play there.  She didn’t understand the danger, so she rares back and declares to her father, I HATE YOU!
I think of a child hearing his parents, late at night, arguing in the living room…again.  And, it turns violent…again.  There is pain and blackened eyes…again; the 7-year-old cannot stay in the bed and listen….again.  So, he runs to the living room and steps between mother and father, knowing he cannot make a difference, but his weeping makes him try.
In each instance the motivation is love.  It is love that causes a president to choose the right thing over a popular thing.  It is love that makes a father act when his child puts herself in danger, and doesn’t understand.  It is love that propels even a small child to stand in protection of a battered mother.  And it was love that compelled Christ to the cross.
So, what about those seeds?  Why plant them?  Love!
There are laws of the harvest. 
          ·       You will always reap more than you sow.
          ·       You will always reap later than you sow.
          ·       You will not reap unless you sow. 
And the greatest, least popular, law is:
          ·       The harvest is greater or lesser in direct proportion to the cost to you of sowing.
Parents of prodigals sow seeds of self-sacrifice, nurture, and forbearing the immaturity of youth because of love.  And the greatest cost is loving, doing the best for the prodigal, when the cost will be the prodigal choosing the pigpen over the homeplace.  That is when a parent becomes a warrior in the prayer room, and that is when a warrior weeps.
Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we understand doing the so-called right thing is really just living the truth of love, doing the best for our neighbor, which includes the whole world, starting in our own houses with our children, parents, and kin.  Give us grace today to faithfully back up doing the right thing with our warrior’s tears.

For You Today
The joyful end of Jesus’ story of the Prodigal is separated by time in the far country’s pigpen.  It’s easy to want to jump to the last chapter; easy, not right.  Give God time and plenty of warrior’s tears to awaken your prodigal to just how bad that pigpen really smells…and how exceptionally foolish was the choice was to live there.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO                                                                                                                  
Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on Psalm 126 see World UPSIDE DOWN and Precious Seeds  

No comments:

Post a Comment