A World Cries Out

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down” - Isaiah 64:1

How often have our hearts spoken that same prayer? How often have we longed for God to break into this broken world and set right the wrongs?  How often have we wished for some Divine intervention to rescue us from a seemingly hopeless and dark time? We’ve all prayed that prayer: “Come and make it right, God. Step in and do something about this mess.”

This is the Cry of the hopeless, the Cry of the oppressed, downtrodden, forgotten, unseen and unheard. Throughout history – as one group dominates and oppresses another – we have hoped and prayed that some external spiritual superpower would deliver us from such evil. Yet, all our spiritual heroes – Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed – have directed us to find that power of deliverance deep within ourselves. 

As this same passage in Isaiah reminds us, ‘Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. - Isaiah 64:8

If we are the clay and the work of the hands of the Divine, then God’s response to the Cry of the oppressed is acted out through OUR response to the Cry of the oppressed. It is We who are meant to respond to that Cry. 

Our spiritual walk is not separate from our human walk – or from how we live our lives through all the large and small choices that we make every day. Our spirituality is meant to inform and uplift our humanity. When we answer the Call to make a positive difference in the lives of other people we find that we become more in the process.

By finding meaningful ways to be of service every day, we shift the focus of our attention from our minds to our hearts. And by so doing, we deliver ourselves from much of the anxiety and stress that this intense era is exerting on us all. As we each make the commitment to answer the Call for help that we see and hear around us so often, we help lift the spirits of countless and our own at the very same time.