Have you been Marked for Groaning and Sighing?

It was a story that released an inner groan.

It was the story of a North Korean soldier being executed for failing to grieve after the death of Kim Jong-il. He was caught drinking during the 100 day mourning period.

Execution is bad enough, but the way he was killed was horrific. He was ordered to stand on the spot where a mortar was targeted and was obliterated by the blast.

Horror, fear, shock must have flooded this man’s life as a mortar shell arced towards him. The North Koreans were sending a message of terror to their Army and their people.

‘Statistics don’t go viral, stories do’. Matthew Synder

The story was a virus in my soul.

I groaned and sighed at the horror of what mankind could do.

I was reading this the other day

“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” Ezekiel 9:4

There is a time when we need to embrace the horrors of this world. To be marked by the atrocities committed, the abuses, the evil.

To be awakened to the suffering of so many, and not become blasé and switch channels to the latest T.V. sit-com or reality show.

Reality is what God holds in nail torn hands. A beckoning invitation to clasp their’s with our’s. (Like that? Tweet it!)

To hold but just a speck of what God must feel would be overwhelming to the fragile self.

Yet I cautiously grasp the nail torn hands. I place my hand in the spear wound and weep. He draws me to his chest and we both sigh and groan. No words are spoken as his tears mingle with mine.

I embrace Ezekiel’s mark and treat it as a special gift of connection with Gods heart and mine.

My prayers mingle with others as an offering of incense.

I ponder on this soldier’s family.

Are they living in fear? Are they even still alive?

I pray, pray, pray.

Not just for those suffering under the abuse, but for the abuser. For the tyranny of evil and corruption they too are living under. Their souls are far from the God that gave them breathe, they are lost children too.

I pray, pray, pray.

‘Don’t let the Ezekiel mark be lifted from me until a work has been done in my soul that transforms any hardness into love and compassion for all. I don’t want to be disconnected from the sigh’s and groans of your heart’

Question to consider and share a comment.