The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." -Genesis 4:10
In the aftermath of tragedy, I wonder, God, do you still hear the blood of the innocent, crying out to you for justice? Can you hear the echoes of each individual soul? From Iraq to Gaza to Syria to Ferguson, and beyond? To the places that no one has heard of, but where injustice reigns seemingly unopposed?
I feel my heart breaking. People around me mourn, with hearts more broken than mine, in the wake of horrors happening in a place they called home. And I wonder, God, does your heart break, too?
I believe that it does.
Have I not prayed, Break my heart for what breaks yours? My heart breaks, but I cannot resent the pain. The day injustice no longer breaks my heart is the day I am no longer myself.
Yet my heart and soul cry out, and I identify with Habakkuk. (1:2-4)
How long, oh Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Have mercy on us. We wait upon the day. We seek justice and love mercy, and we wait upon the day.
And I remember that Habakkuk ends in hope.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet feel like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
-Habakkuk 3:17-19
May injustice ever break my heart.
May I never close my senses to truth.
May You show us the way out of the darkness.
