The sunlight bounces off the steel monkey bars that are one of the few ways to escape the world that you live in. You dangle between the fragile hope that is simply a small seed amongst a bed of rocks and lifeless soil and the constant nagging reminder that life does not always give you a reason to wake up with a smile and a spring in your step.
Your hands are strong, your heart calloused. You are used to carrying the weight of your family as each day you become more frustrated because you are living in a dried up well, waiting for the drought to come to an end. Yet what you cant hide is the way your heart has slowly become poisoned with bitterness as you have built up resistance to even the warm sun that shines down on you trying to bring life to your hopeless situation.
The bitterness has slowly taken hold and no matter how hard you fight, it grabs your hand and runs away. It pulls you through fields of heartache that thrives off of the abuse and torment that is more familiar then a healthy touch or friendly hug.
You try to let go, to somehow see the silver lining, the flower of light amongst the overgrown tangle of weeds. Yet hope is hard to find when your home is built on lies and the four walls that surround you only succeed in hiding the abuse and oppression.
Every now and then you see a small flower pushing its way through the cement, it fights for your attention and sparks just a small dream in your soul. For a moment you feel your spirits lifting, maybe, just maybe your life could be more then just a mist, here today and gone tomorrow. Yet in an instant, the gun shots nearby silence you, leaving you voiceless and alone, a victim to the hopelessness that has chocked any remaining life out of that small flower.
Now let me ask you something, why are we walking around and tossing encouragement at people from a safe distance? We tell them that God loves them, but how can this be true when we are choosing to look the other way even though we know that if Jesus was here He would be the first to sit down and love on the brokenhearted. We tell them to hold on and that life will get better, but who are we to say that when so often our biggest concern becomes watching the battery life on our phone slowly fading into darkness.
How can we tell them to hold onto hope, when hope comes in the form of a person and we aren’t playing our part. I am not saying that you must sell all your belongings and move to another country. I am just suggesting that we start living with our eyes open and heart ready, looking to revive and breathe life into those whose hearts have lost the motivation to trudge through a meaningless life.
There is a God who is in love with those who call loneliness a home and who think they are unimportant, replaceable and unwanted. He does not give his heart in pieces and He collects every tear that we cry as He weeps alongside us.
When are we going to realize the power in living out love and in joining hands with those suffering, letting them know that they don’t walk this road alone. Life is a lot more fleeting then you think, so why wait until your last shaky breath to tell the world that you wished you had done more or loved deeper.
Injustice does not work like a clock, it doesn’t need a timer to tell it when to start. It began long before you were born, the slow process of draining the life from heart after heart. It doesn’t ask permission, it is out to rob us of joy and to leave us wrapped in chains of fear.
It will only begin to loose its grip once we start becoming the hands and feet of love. For what is stronger then a heart living and breathing with a purpose and direction, a fire that refuses to let this world be the water that puts it out.
We live in a world that loves darkness and is quick to let hate and judgmental glances be the first reaction. That is why God made you a light, a beacon of love in a world that is craving gentleness. So don’t stand there as you doze off letting your problems become the featured dream as you convince yourself that somehow they are more important then what is going on around you.
Let love be the hope that brings you to life every morning. Let every step you take be filled with a powerful purpose and let every beat of your heart sing a song of kindness. Don’t let yourself be caught trying to sing the song of this world when the way you live your life is the basis for its own masterpiece.
The person you are is the beauty in a broken life. It is the whisper of a warm summer breeze that reminds us there is something greater to live for. For we were created by the one who taught the stars to shine and whose very breath commands the wind and waves.
You are alive because love is the living hope, the hands and feet that start a revolution.
Rose and Thorn 