December 10th

Cut to the Heart

          Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”  Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”  And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”  So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Acts 2:37-41

             The day of Pentecost came.  The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach in languages that they had never learned.  Chief among the speakers was Peter who spoke to the crowd about Jesus and the history of the Jews and the crucifixion and resurrection.  It is an okay speech; it only takes about three minutes to read in total, but the effect was that 3,000 people became believers. 

            That is the power of the Holy Spirit.  It takes regular words, spoken by ordinary people and uses them to transform the hearts and lives of the hearers.  The passage says that the listeners were “cut to the heart.”  Peter’s words were not deflected by apathy or distraction or cynicism or any other defense mechanism.  The listeners felt the truth of his speech and were moved to repentance.  The Holy Spirit was working in the hearts of the listeners and preparing them to respond to Peter’s words.  The Holy Spirit was working through Peter to give him the right words to say at the right time in the right way.  In short, God was working through in both the speaker and the listeners in order for His children to find their way back home.

            There are times when we are cut to the heart as parents.  We are going about our everyday lives when something strikes us like lightning.  It could be something that we read.  It could be something that we watch.  It could be something that someone says to us that shoots right through all our defenses and all our excuses and goes straight to the core of our being.

            I was watching a documentary on Rich Mullins called “Homeless Man” with a group of student leaders and one of the interviews was with his sister.  She was recapping a conversation that the two of them had just after her newborn was diagnosed with birth defects.  She was devastated and angry with God and wondering what she had done wrong when her brother called her:

            Rich Mullins:  I’m so proud of you.

            Sister:  Proud of me?  For what?

            Rich Mullins:  I’m so proud that you’re my sister.  Don’t you realize that God only gives    kids with special needs to special people that He knows can give them special love.

I lost it.  I just bawled in the back of the room while the rest of the group watched the conclusion of the movie.  I had watched the movie a half dozen times before, but this time the words cut straight to my heart.  In the midst of my exhaustion, in the midst of my guilt, in the midst of my anger with God, in the midst of my cluelessness, God spoke to me through a documentary.  His words of affirmation and pride and love echoed through my heart and my  mind.  We had not been given a special needs child as a punishment or as a test or as an obstacle to overcome.  We were chosen because we were specially equipped to love him well.  Those words still resonate deeply with me to this day.

            The Holy Spirit is at work.  The Holy Spirit speaks.  Allow yourself to listen.

A moment to reflect:

Ask God what He has to say to you and then listen.  Write down any responses that you think might be from Him and then review them later to see if they still ring true.