I still can't bring myself to watch Schindler's List, though I have seen a couple of clips on it, especially the very touching ending. Just can't bear the thought of all the torture the Jews had to face. Just hearing about it is enough for me. We started watching The Pianist last night but I decided not to go through with it. My spirit was disturbed and I eventually went to bed tossing and turning, thinking over what the Jews had to endure, how they were treated so inhumanely. Fab continued with the movie later in the night and commented that it was probably better I did not see the whole thing as he knows how easily I get affected. It's not just them. The Black Americans and Africans were treated that way by the Whites. All throughout history we see different races and nationalities and people groups executing violence towards one another. Often one act is simply an act of defense and retaliation from the first attack. Or it becomes about revenge for the cruelty and pain of having lost those very dear. I just want it to end. Even those who believed in God and lived for Him were brutally murdered. Martyrs? Maybe they did experience His peace at their hour of greatest need. Some have survived yet lost their loved ones. Some have come through with prayer and pleading, others blessed by those who were able to help them hide or escape or be released.
When the near 400,000 Jews were herded into a tiny complex closed in with towering walls and treated like dirt, one man said to the protagonist of the film The Pianist, "I have stopped believing in God". That bit I will remember. With everything that was happening, it would have been so difficult to find God in the midst of it. I don't know if I would have been able to persevere in my faith had I been there and greatly abused. Just living in fear and watching how the German guards were using the Jews for their entertainment, joking and laughing away at their suffering, would have swayed me. How tormented their thoughts would have been. Every sound in the night would have woken them. Every shadow haunted their already frail minds and trembling hearts.
I long to speak with one who clung to God then, one who had peace that transcends all understanding and was even able to share of His goodness and faithfulness to others, and who, despite deep losses, praises Him even more today. What a grave trial. Had I been an unbeliever, someone who had never heard the Gospel, would I have turned my face towards this God someone was so kindly preaching to me? Would I have hated them and resented their so-called God? Had God placed me in a family that did not know Him, a land of poverty, a life of constant abuse and suffering, would I have a personal relationship with Him today? Would I think about Him and write about Him and worship Him with songs in Church? I honestly do not know the answer to that. That scares me. To think how fragile my faith can be. How easily my lot in life could have been something completely different.
God, please bring healing and restoration to Your people. Please end the wars. The cycle of revenge. The cruelty. May their minds be clear and their hearts filled with compassion and forgiveness. Father, please. Help us all to draw closer to You when our minds and hearts fail us. Help us take on Your perspective. Where we are weak, be our strength. Take us deeper into Your grace. May Your people never be shamed again. May we never be afraid to proclaim You wherever we are. Forgive us when we lack faith. When we disobey. Restore the children and women and men who have been abused. Please God, this world needs You so much. Please.
No comments:
Post a Comment