Friday of the 5th Week of Lent
Jer 20:10-13
Jn 10:31-42
“…even if you refuse to believe me, at least believe the work I do; then you will know for sure that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
One of the most tragic kinds of illness in our world today is – to me – the blindness of our hearts. By my own definition, I feel that blindness of the heart is not that sympathy or empathy is not present in the heart, but that apathy has more presence in our hearts than sympathy and empathy. That we are so closed in our own world that we fail to see what is around us, that we can’t step, even for a moment, into that situation to be present in the moment and the feelings, before we are pulled away to scroll to the next thing. I realise this may be quite controversial, but this is my personal reflection on something that Jesus was so passionate, so desperate for people to realise – the wonder and glory of God, in the flesh, and the miracles that God had performed through Jesus – this is truly God at work – and the people missed it. Even now, we are missing it. We have fallen asleep in our lives, desensitized ourselves to everything around us that does not concern us, only hearing the meaningless call out to us. And the worst part is, even with God all around us, we are still questioning – is He for real?
It’s easy to feel like we are the only beings in this world or universe that matter. After all, we’ve gone and created great things like artificial intelligence. While I don’t dispute its many benefits but pause for a moment – we have created intelligence that maybe two generations ago we would have thought almost impossible, something that only existed in science fiction. We have taught a robot to feel, to talk to us, to impersonate a human, something so real that we think it is. Naturally, we may think all these wonders that God has wrought – maybe it can be duplicated by AI one day too, in which case, how can this be God at work?
As more information and entertainment are made available to us, and we in turn are made available to everyone and everything, at any hour of the day, is it any wonder that we are being ‘desensitized’? That we suffer blindness of the heart? We are fed lies and a backdrop that seems so real to us, how do you differentiate what is of God and what is not? In all this chaos, I can only say — Pray. Pray that our hearts are not so closed out that we shut out even what is of God. Pray for silence, to be silent for a moment, and for God to come find us in that silence. Pray to learn how to be still and know that God is there. God is everywhere. Pray for wisdom, even as Solomon did before us, to discern what is of God and reject what is not. Pray with faith, that God hears our knock and will answer us and show us the way. Pray unceasingly knowing that perseverance in prayer will get us there. Pray alone, for God knows our heavy hearts even before we have uttered a single word; but also, pray together, for if there are two or more gathered in His name, there He will be.
The works of God are everywhere around us, if we only stop to look. There are many things that will try to wrestle us from God’s attention but be steadfast, especially in the coming days, and you will see God in all things.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Annette Soo)
Prayer: Lord, I am making a simple prayer, in the small silence and stillness in our prayers to You, please find us in the silence. Find us even as we are lost, and open our hearts and eyes, that we may perceive You all around us and know that You are God. Thanksgiving: Lord, You said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed”. Thank you for the many ways in which You make Yourself present in our lives each day. May we always be present enough to witness it unfold.
OXYGEN 
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