Sweet conviction. Refreshing refinement. Lord have your way.
The video was filmed in Dallas of a man sitting down to watch the news. At the sights & sounds of the tragedy he stands to leave, putting his headphones on.
"I don't have to hear it, if I don't want to
I can drown this out, pull the curtains down on you
It's a heavy world, it's too much for me to care
If I close my eyes, it's not there"
He walks down the street, passing a homeless man on the corner. The homeless man looks up at him, hungry & needy with anticipation and hope that maybe this man will be the one to reach out. The man looks away, passing the homeless man while eating his snickers bar, headphones on.
A little further in his walk a young boy sits alone on the curb holding a football. Clearly hoping for a friend, a father, a hand to reach out and love him. The self-absorbed man looks away, consumed with his music & his life... with his headphones on.
On the bus he sits across from a hurting lady. He knows He should offer hope. He wants to offer a word, a touch, some love... But his headphones are on. It's easier to just drown it out. It's easier to "pull the curtain down".
Do I live life with my headphones on? It's easier many times to decide I don't want to hear it. I can drown it out and go on with my life.
But is that what we are called to? Did Christ die to give us comfy lives, free from suffering, secluded from the oppressed & hurting?
Suffering is difficult to look at. But it's all over the Bible. To turn my nose to it is to turn my nose to the heart of Christ.
Our son's verse, a verse we have prayed and spoken over him since he was born, reverberates the heartbeat of Christ.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
(Micah 6:8)
I cannot act justly, love mercy and walk with my God if I am drowning out the needs around me. If I am oblivious.
Lord take off my headphones. I began praying this over the weekend. Take off my headphones. Make me aware of those around me. The needs, the desires, the hurts. Awaken my heart again to the lost. The oppressed.
Take off my headphones.
The very next day as I walked into Walmart I begged God "Take off my headphones".
As I walked through the checkout line, the woman scanning my groceries was HUNGRY. Not physically, but spiritually. Emotionally. She needed something.
I could have been a monkey with a wig on, inviting her to any church, inviting her to a cult even... and she would have accepted. She just wanted SOMEONE to extend an invitation.
Thank you Lord that you took off my headphones. Now she is coming to check out our church... And I know YOU WILL REVEAL YOURSELF. May she find what her searching heart is longing for... in You.
May we take off our headphones. In our homes, in our neighborhoods, communities, churches, in our cities, in a hurting world, with a global mindset... To pull back the curtain, STOP long enough to look deep into the eyes of the one in front of us, and extend a hand.
With our headphones off.
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