Hurting People

The church is Christ's bride.  The church is supposed to be the manifestation of the grace of God in this life.  I love the church, although flawed and often extremely messy, I love it.  Today was a hard day.  I was once again reminded of all the hurt in the world.  I was reminded that hurting children grow to become hurting teens who grow to become hurting adults.  I once again began thinking about the importance of loving those inside and outside of the church.  I was glad for the time that I did take for real conversations in the life of a child.  I was saddened that sometimes pain is so deep and so overwhelming that I feel as though we can not overcome it.  I longed for God to come back, as His glorious, warrior/kingly self and destroy the evil in the world.  For this is the only answer to some people's pain - the return of Christ and His amazing power in their lives.  In some ways that is the only answer to all of our pain.  The next life, for we were not created to live in this fallen world.  Until then, my prayer tonight is that God's Church, the manifestation of His grace would be just that tonight and continue to point people towards God's amazing power for life-transformation.