Break Open The SkyShembull

What Have You Seen?

In the early days of Jesus’ life on earth, his cousin, John the Baptist, lost hope. Imprisoned, John sent a couple of disciples to ask Jesus some really hard questions. They said,

“John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”. . .

A journalist once questioned me about the injustice caused by religion throughout history. “What if we were to count the dead bodies stacked up throughout history in the name of God?” he asked. “What about the slave trade, the thirty years’ war following the Reformation, the Inquisition, the Crusades, the church being late to HIV/AIDS crisis?

“Could we also count the missing bodies?” I responded. “What if Africa’s suffering had never ‘arrested’ William Wilberforce’s heart? What if a young girl from Albania had never listened to a call to serve the dying in India? What if Desmond Tutu had never lain his body across a white man about to be stoned by an angry mob? What if Jesus Christ had never taken upon himself the violence of the world so that one day all violence would cease? How many bodies would be stacked up then?” I asked.

Amid the wounds of the world, your own suffering, your overwhelming disappointment, seasons of confusion, unfulfilled promises, the marriage that's not going as well as you hoped, the child who is treading a dangerous path, the depression that nags at your soul—do you ever lose heart? In the quiet place in your heart, do you ever ask of God: Are you really the One...?

Jesus replied this way: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

When we lose heart, we owe it to God and ourselves to ask what we have “seen and heard…” Sometimes we have to slow down long enough to see the evidence of God’s love—the surprising joy that comes after grief; the sunrise after a dark night of the soul; the glimmer of hope in a broken relationship; the release of shame after a mistake. God’s miracles—life overcoming death—are near.

He is the One.

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