Is it Nothing to You?

(Posted on behalf of Pastor Paul Crisp)

Lamentations 1:12 – Is it nothing to you?

The voice is that of Jerusalem. The devastation is complete. Famine, cannibalism of children, hopelessness, loneliness, bitterness, mourning. And the world passed by without a care. Is it nothing to you?

Hundreds of years later, Jesus was hanging on a cross outside this same city that had been rebuilt. The high water mark of sin was at flood stage, beginning to overflow. He was thirsty, alone, bleeding, mocked, rejected and slowly dying. Once again the world passed by without a care, shook their heads and heaped sarcasm on Him without mercy. Is it nothing to you?

2000 years pass. We now have the chaotic world of overdose hatred, vile foul-mouthed leaders, boastful and proud children who are conceived in nights of drunkenness and uncontrolled lust, then born addicted without a single day of “clean time”. I wonder if God is suffering along with them and saying something like Is it Nothing to You?

I went to an NA meeting on a recent Saturday night and in the midst of children playing, two men were given key chains to recognize their “clean time”. One had been clean for a full year, the other for two years. Here and there we can make a difference in our world. It’s not by the multitude but one by one we can reach people who are broken. And if we will make room for broken people, we shall be healed ourselves. If not, we will forever remain sick and part of the calloused crowd that passes on by.