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Oh, oh, oh . . . How empty the city, once teeming with people. A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations, once queen of the ball, she's now a drudge in the kitchen. She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her. After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile. She camps out among the nations, never feels at home. Hunted by all, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. Zion's roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts. All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair. Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate. Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile. All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion's face. Her princes are like deer famished for food, chased to exhaustion by hunters. (Lamentations 1:1-6)
"Don't touch that, that's hot!" Seconds later, "Waaaaah!" And on it goes for some; taught to do right, yet they choose wrong; and some even wonder why consequences come their way. Such was the story of this empty city that was once teeming with people; now a widow, where once she had led the parade and been "queen of the ball, she's now a drudge in the kitchen." Sobs are her companions in bed; no one to hold her hand. Such a sad picture painted in this sharing of the consequences of trying to leave God for the things of pleasure and passion. Those of us who have been there know that like the writer said, we find ourselves "stuck between a rock and a hard place."
The good news is that we don't have to stay where we find ourselves mired in sin; God acted on our behalf and sent Jesus to free us from our sin and to lead us away from sin into the fullness of life, and to that fullness we should go, bringing with us all who will hear and accept that they too, do not have to stay in sin; God calls us to life.
PRAYER: Lord, help me this day choose that which brings me to life and the fullness of life. Help me to live in such a way that blesses others to come to you; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
