Now there's a pain that's deep within, and God's light just cannot be seen. You're tossed and you're turned, but you never quite learn, that you're caught in the in-betweens.
(c) 1978, Gary W. Moore
Another phrase from that song asks, “Do you go through the motions without emotions?” There are times in one’s life when it is easy to get in a rut or to be desensitized to the Holy Spirit or to insulate your self and run from circumstances or run from the call of God. We find a reference to this life in Isaiah 29:13, which says: The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught…”
This condition is deeper than apathy. Apathy is a natural coping mechanism. An approach that human nature uses to keep us caught between the healing of God and the will of self. The intent is to keep us “caught in the in-betweens.” We try to live without care. That’s not fulfilling and, let’s face it; it’s not how Jesus called us to live.
So how do we open our scars and allow God’s healing salve into the wounds that put us in this do-not-care condition? God’s tool of choice is praise. As Psalms 68:4-5 declares, “Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”
God cares. He is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. Our God cares and He cares for us but we must open ourselves up to God for His healing to enter us, and praise from us to Him is the best way for us to allow the Holy Spirit of God in to pour oil on our injuries, just as the Good Samaritan did in Christ’s parable.
Open your mouth, thank God, sing to Him even if you don’t feel like it or don’t know what to say or sing. The point is to thank God, have faith in God, declare your love of God out loud, and that you are determined to find your joy and purpose in Him. As the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write in Ephesians 5:19, “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,..”
Amen