REBUILDING BROKEN LIVES

 

By Angeline Duran Santiago

We are living in a time of agendas. Everyone has something they are standing up for or speaking out against. Most people lean towards the left while some lean towards the right. And some, well, they are in the middle or wherever the ball bounces, that's where they land and stand. Signs are made, streets are filled with fighting, and at the end of the day it seems darkness continues to reign and tomorrow gives way for another day to be heard.

Humanity finds a cause to embrace as their life and death issue. The living have something to prove so they find a platform to speak their truth on. Many believers, take their place on the frontlines, speaking up to what they hold to be true. I think of all these issues so loud on social media, on all the many different news channels, blogs and headlines. We choose sides and lift our voices for what many believe could be this world's last opportunity to speak up. We hear many say we are living in the last days.

As I stood and worshipped on Sunday, the worship leader asked a question just before starting to sing. "Are you ready for Jesus to come?" Once more, hit with the statement that we are living in the last days. The congregation was praising and singing and suddenly this question out of nowhere. To some, it could have been a question they didn't hear or ignored. To others, perhaps a moment to pause and reflect and then jump in and keep singing. To me, my heart felt like a deep hit, a sudden stop to what I felt was my moment of rejoicing. "Angie, are you ready for Jesus to come?"

Was I ready for Jesus to come for his church? Was I truly ready to sing, "Come Jesus, come." Immediately my mind opened its image tab and I saw the faces of those I love. I saw the faces of my children, my parents, my family and friends. Were we really and truly ready in that very moment, ready for the promised return of our Savior?

Then, it hit me again. So many believers, so many of us, are intensely caught up in the social agendas of this world that many of us have laid aside what truly matters. I am not saying that the causes we stand up for do not have importance and that we should not speak up for the Truth God has placed in our hearts. I am saying that some of us have become so absorbed and focused on the headlines of this generation, that we have neglected and forsaken the simple ministry of speaking to our families about Jesus.

I have not forgotten the question asked on Sunday. "Are you ready for Jesus to return?" And I respond with shame and sadness, "No, Lord. I am not. Please do not come. Not yet. I am not as ready as I thought I was. I am not going to hear you say, "Well done." "Wait, Lord." "My son has still not surrendered completely to you." "My child has not made a decision to follow you." "God, my dad is still broken, hurting, and will not give his heart to you." "Heavenly Father, my mom is still believing she is good and does not need to confess you as Lord." "Holy Spirit, I want to experience you in a greater way. Use my life. Change me. For I am not ready."

What came to my mind was this passage in Nehemiah 2. Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the King, "If it pleases the King and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city of Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it."

I don't see Nehemiah asking to speak up against the injustices of the moment or about how the government has to get it together. Instead, I see a man on a mission who is only thinking about the broken condition of the people, God's people. I see a man that acknowledges that what has happened to God's people is something their sin has brought upon them. He is also a man who knows the Word of the Lord, who knows what God has promised, and who realizes that it is time to put aside his obligations and his roles before the king, and to take the heavenly agenda of rebuilding. My imagination hears Nehemiah praying, "Lord, use me to restore the broken. Use me to rebuild the downcast. Lead me to pick up the shattered pieces and the scattered ashes." 

I imagine the story playing out in Nehemiah's head. Perhaps he sees the people, sad, hurting, without hope. He sees the gates gone, heaps in ruins, ashes, no beauty, bricks on the floor, and the places that once offered safety and refuge gone. The people are helpless. He does not decide to fight for anything else but returning to where his ancestors are buried, to where his people were, and restoring what has been destroyed. I wonder if he saw darkness all around him and somehow God's word as a flicker of Light calling him to rise up and move forward? He was ready to rebuild even if he did it alone. He had a word for those who spoke against him and tried to stop him. He was full of courage. Ready to fight, unstoppable. Mission restore someone had begun.

Dramatic music plays in the background as I see Nehemiah, walking into the land of broken dreams and forgotten people. His steps are accompanied by the sound of drums and a mighty moment comes when he tells everyone around him, "We his servants will start rebuilding." (Nehemiah 2:20) You read the rest of the book of Nehemiah and this story is intense but oh, the job gets done in the midst of adversity and opposition. Can you see those walls and those gates as the minds, the hearts, the spirit and the souls of people who need God's love, God's forgiveness and restoration?

We want Jesus to come. We preach and sing about His return. But, we have not taken the steps to not only make sure we are ready for His coming, but that our children, our grandchildren, our parents and our friends are also full of the understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what His purpose was when He came to this world. 

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to speak to the lives that were broken. He went to the areas where lives where in the rubble and He spoke the necessary words to rebuild, erect new walls, and strengthen the gates that protect God's word inside of us. 

Lord, I do not just want to know about you. I do not just want to say, "Amen" when I agree what someone says about you or your word. I want my life to be real in public and in private, really living a life that show You are the most important part of all I am. I want my words to speak to others about your plan for their life and that my children can truly understand why you gave your life for humanity. I want them to see why it was necessary for your very existence to be broken and destroyed, like those walls and those gates in Nehemiah. 

Heavenly Father, you alone, your power alone, can rebuild our shattered dreams, our hearts full of pain and our loneliness. You alone can rebuild our lives that are left on the wayside, open to the enemies of our souls.

Yes, my brother and my sister, stand for what you believe you must stand for. Preach in season and out of season. But, let your loudest message be rebuilding lives. Let our strongest march be to reach those right in our own homes. May our greatest song and our greatest message be heard by our children and our families. Let all we do, our songs, our dance, our writing, our ministries and our every moment point others to Jesus. May our most powerful moment be when we see our loved ones saying, "Yes, we are ready for Jesus to come. Come, Lord Jesus, Come."