Locked in

Isaiah 42:21-25

Israel’s  Disobedience

 The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness,

to magnify his teaching and make it glorious.

But this is a people robbed and plundered,

all of them are trapped in holes

and hidden in prisons;

they have become a prey with no one to rescue,

a spoil with no one to say, “Restore!”

Who among you will give heed to this,

who will attend and listen for the time to come?

Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler,

and Israel to the robbers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,

in whose ways they would not walk,

and whose law they would not obey?

So he poured upon him the heat of his anger

and the fury of war;

it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;

it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

There's something about a people oppressed

A people who have lost sight of what is good and right

A people who have lost hope

that life can be other

than the narrow enclave

in which they now reside

Those with vision of something new

are few and far between

and are despised for their ability to dream

And so the cycle of despair and hurt

becomes perpetual and endless

And signs pointing to a way out

are misunderstood, mistrusted, 

destroyed before they have a chance to take root.

And people hunker down  

and stick with what they know.

Prayer

God, when we see no way out, for ourselves or for others, keep prodding us, especially when we become resigned to the status quo. Keep igniting our hope that life can be redeemed and that the dawn will come. Be in all our awakenings, diffusing love, light and hope.