Broken Ribs

You may have read the headline of this blog and assumed I'm injured. That assumption would in fact be incorrect, but bear with me... I'll get there.

This weekend I journeyed home to visit my family. I was excited to find out that my sister was actually on spring break this week and didn't have to work yesterday. Although we spent the time pretty low-key, I had a great time. Sadie played shy at first, but then warmed up to me. I'm so thankful that I get to have an incredible life here in Philadelphia, and yet can still travel home to get away from it all. I took a different route this time and I enjoyed it much more than the old route. For anyone who knows the NorthEast, I usually take I-476//I-81//I-86 but it's sooooooo boring. This time I took I-476//I-80//PA-15. There's A LOT more hills which means curves and bends, but the sights are gorgeous. I wouldn't want to take that route in the snow, but it will do for my weather-free travels.

Anyways, while I was on my way home I was listening to the Rend Collective Campfires Album. It's a great album and I highly encourage you to listen to it. There's a line in one of the songs that says "Revive the Earth" and it put such a clear image in my head. I could see the earth, sitting in space and God's hand was pressing on it. Kind of like you would imagine the palm of one's hand pressing on a tennis ball. The earth was significantly smaller than the hand, but it was getting pressed none the less. I began to recall my CPR training for work and how when you want to revive someone who is unconscious, you have to press on their chest... on their heart to revive them. The goal is to keep the heart beating through forceful chest compressions so that the blood keeps flowing and brain damage is minimized.

I began to realize the connection between the mental picture I had and the realities of CPR. If you want the person to survive, you have to press pretty hard and not quit. Apparently, the pressure is so hard from CPR that it's not uncommon to crack or break ribs in the process. If we want God to revive us and our land, we are gonna have to allow Him to do the work and it's quite possibly going to make us very uncomfortable.

What if the very thing that we think is protecting us in our lives is actually the thing that needs to be broken so that God can get to the root of our issues: our heart. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to willingly subject myself to pain, but I don't want to be dead either. I don't think many people would be mad at you for breaking their ribs while you gave them CPR. I mean, if they're alive, I think they can forgive you for what you had to do to get them there. Yet we get mad at God when he points out things in our lives that need to be removed in order to thrive.

God's not trying to hurt us, he's allowing pressure on our lives to get to the root of the problem. I don't like pressure, but I also don't like death. Revive my heart God and show me that the pain in this season is creating space for the heartbeat in my future.