Numbness and Rest

Okay, this morning I was listening to Evanescence "Bring Me To Life." I love that song. I love it in the way I love all really painful songs and it got me to thinking. One of the reasons I'm attracted to the dark side of things -- angry heavy metal, sad blues songs, heart-wrenching (good) country music-- is because Christian artists don't really deal with darkness well. God knows I have tried to sit in front of Gospel Music Channel and listen to their kind of dark music. Utter, utter, failure. Why? Inability to go to the core of things? Inability to touch the smelly Lazarus of painful emotion to help it resurrect? (<-- Wow, nice phrase that!)

Paul said the blood of Christ removes bloodguiltiness. Not just guilt but guiltiness is what stands between us and God. How can we receive -- even after we are forgiven if we still feel guilt? Isaiah wrote that the Servant of God would be wounded for our transgressions, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. We are healed and redeemed from sin, emotional wounds caused by the sin of the world, and physical disease. Ministers have majored in the redemption from sin. But they have not used the gospel or the Bible stories to touch the other parts of the destroyed human soul. They have not really talked about emotional healing or physical healing with the fervor that they should have.

I'm thinking of the Prodigal because Joe Castillo sent me a DVD.



I hadn't thought of that parable in a while. But it is a perfect parable about numbness and rest, isn't it? Sure the kid sinned but he returned home because the world had made him numb and he needed rest. Jesus invites us to rest. To enter into his rest. Not the peace or rest humans can give, but the peace and rest that can cast all its care on God because we know God is loving.

A lot of Christian artist either give us a sentimental idea of that kind of rest or they don't show the journey to that rest or the terrible pain of that restlessness. Okay, maybe it's me. Maybe I'm so hard and numb a story really has to be incredibly painful and true to connect to me. But i dunno...it just seems to me that sentimentality doesn't heal many people.
Personal opinion.