Let your will be done

                                 

                    

One of the remarks made at the solidarity rally yesterday made me stop and think. And I have to admit I was angry. Angry and saddened, that yet again, our systems, our leaders have failed us.

I know that I am no scholar of the Holy Book and perhaps not in any way qualified to ponder on such a weighty statement. But I do know this, that to say “Let His will be done” in what has happened recently is something I find very hard to accept.

Our Lord willingly made this statement - a singular decision to abide by the will of His Father on that fateful night at Gethsemane. A terrible day lay ahead with the inevitability of death. And He still chose to obey, freeing us from our shackles of oppression and the penalty of sin.

Mary, mother of Jesus, also uttered a similar phrase when told she would bear the son of God – “I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." – Luke 1:38

She knew the obstacles that lay before and yet she chose again, willingly to obey the Lord’s will in her life.

What I do not understand is how can this recent terrible act that had been inflicted upon a lady be swept under the gamut of letting God’s will be done in her life and as a result, we as fellow Christians, also be asked to challenge our faith to have a similar response when something terrible happens to us?

I believe strongly that we ought to forgive, and yes, although it is difficult even for the unimaginable crimes, to be able to pardon our transgressors. Forgiving frees us from the act that has/had been committed upon us because it tells us that we are not at fault, that it is not something we did or did not do that caused the travesty to fall upon us.

But I do not for a minute that it was or is in God’s will for harm to befall us. It is men who do this. Insane men. Men imposing their will on others, forcing through fear, through evil acts to perpetuate their sense of power upon the weak, the helpless.

Do you for a moment that it is God’s will when children are lured, snatched and then desecrated? Subjected to and trapped in a world of torment and abuse?

Is it God’s will when women across the board, whether it be in a small town or a leading personality, are subject to abuse at the hands of their spouse?

Would you justify it as God’s will when thousands lose all that they have through mindless bombings, the horrific fallout often the deaths of their children? Babies forever lost in the mindless slaughter of the day?

How then do we deal this? Indeed it would be a travesty to say let His will be done, to brush aside such acts under this, the same declaration. For every wrong that is committed, the truth must be brought out. 

Like I had mentioned in my first blogpost, we do as Christ would have us do in gentleness and in humility but we also are called to do what is right - to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. And that is why we cannot stay silent.

I also believe we need to lay it all upon His feet, to trust in His unfailing love to see us through, for His strength to face the ordeals ahead of us. In learning to trust in Him through the darkness, in allowing ourselves to be submissive to His grace and thereby His healing, can we then, truthfully say, 

“Lord, let Your peace fill my heart, let it quell the apprehension, lessen the fears.”

“Lord, let Your strength be mine, to endure, to persevere, to forge on.”

“Lord, let Your grace enable me to forgive and to break free from the shackles of pain and guilt.”

“Lord, let Your will be done.”