Enough: Lent DevotionalsSample

ENOUGH: DARK FUEL

“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)

Few things are as dull as cynicism. Yes, the world is not as it ought to be. Yes, injustice is everywhere. But to respond to that by closing the gate of your heart? Unimaginative. Irresponsible. Boring.

Are you angry with the way the world is? Good. Roll up your sleeves; there’s work to be done. True humanity doesn’t put up walls – it draws close to the pain. Hope doesn’t ignore the darkness; it swallows it up, using it as fuel that we might burn all the brighter.

Jesus is the ultimate symbol of this: entering into the darkness; His body broken and His blood poured out in the name of love.

Have you been hurt? I feel for you. You are my brother. You are my sister. I will grieve with you. Yet we are broken to be opened up, not shut down. We are broken so that we might give back a fiercer and more inclusive love – a love that says, “I know.”

Dear God, thank You that You did not abandon us to darkness, but flooded our lives with light through the love and sacrifice of Christ. I embrace my role as a bearer of this light. Give me the strength, courage, wisdom and hope to take this light into my world. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Gideon Heugh, Tearfund