What Does it Mean to Wail?

This morning, wow, Isaiah 11:1-5 gave me a fresh incredible renewed hope after hearing of devastating circumstances this past weekend.
     "Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot--yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.  And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  He will delight in obeying the Lord.  He will never judge by appearance, false evidence, or hearsay.  He will defend the poor and the exploited.  He will rule against the wicked and destroy them with the breath of his mouth.  He will be clothed in fairness and truth."
This is EXACTLY what I needed to be reminded of this morning. Allow me to share my most recent journey with you.


A number of us women have just finished up a study called Nurture by Lisa Bevere.  In the last couple of lessons, she challenged us to allow God to birth a wail in us...what does it mean to wail?  to have a deep resounding wail from the depths of your being?  I pondered this as we watched her 2nd last video in the series as she shared a couple of instances she'd experienced where a wail rose up from the depths of her soul and she just cried out.  Sure, I've been very moved by many things and shed tears over horrible things...but to wail?  I asked God if I've ever had a wail?  I believe I've had many small wails but never too extravagant that just knocked the breath out of me and affected me to move to great action.

This past weekend, God gave me a wail...and it was not expected and it has knocked the breath out of me.  Actually He gave me a bit of a wail a couple weeks ago as well.  I will start with that one.  I had to miss the service one morning at church and knew we were having a couple of special guest singers that morning.  I soooo wanted to hear them sing, so I snuck out of Sunday School class while the video was on to slip in the back door of the sanctuary.  I was instantly struck by the beautiful music of the song "O Happy Day, happy day, He washed my sins away...Oh Happy Day!"  What an incredible song!!  But then my chest was slammed by a deadness...maybe not just my church but for many believers.  Tears instantly came out as I cried over the deadness, the lack of life & expression in the life of His people! I wanted to dance along the aisles and cry out "People, it's beautiful music, and it's such a happy day....HE WASHED OUR SINS AWAY!"  Do we get it?????  Do we really get it?  Why would we not dance if we got it?  Then that song was followed by one of my favorites by David Crowder "Oh How He Loves Us, oh how He loves us...oooooh, how He loves us!"

Well the tears were just streaming down my face, as well as my husbands face, as we together stood there at the back of the sanctuary soaking in how much God loves us...the small amount of love that we can fathom in our human brains.  But again, I cried out for believers and wanted to run up front and cry out to the people "Do you get it my friends?  Do you KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US!?!?!?!?!?!  If you TRULY knew how much GOD LOVES YOU, would you not be on your knees or have your hands raised in utter and complete AWE!?!?!?!?!  Is your heart not moved??"  Oh how my heart cried!  I don't want to be a dead Christian....I want to be alive, full of the spirit and full of life!  I want to be on fire and be the hands and feet of Jesus is ways that only I can.  Well the next Bible study we had on the following Tuesday was all about AWAKENING AND ARISING from our slumber, putting on the armor of God - putting on our ATTIRE and being willing to ACT and go where God is leading us.  OH this study was such incredible timing with what I had just experienced two days ago on that Sunday.

So that was the 1st wail I experienced a couple of weeks ago....the 2nd happened this past weekend.  Our pastor had his men's prayer breakfast again this past Friday, it happens each Friday.  Ladies also gather for Bible study on Friday mornings as well and we had just completed our final wrap up brunch.  I sat with the pastor in the office as he shared about the speaker from breakfast that morning.  Rick from Hands on Ministries in our city was there.  He was sharing about the horrifying number of 250 teen girls under the age of 16 who work on the streets as prostitutes.  Call it prositution if you want...but many times it's rape, just plain horrifying, ugly rape!  At that young age people?  These girls are willingly giving their bodies over and over again, night after night, bringing in $5,000 each month for their pimp!  Tears poured out of my eyes.  He told me stories of 14 & 15 year old girls and the horror they were experiencing and I cried.  I have 2 girls that age and I cannot imagine that for them.  I called my husband at work and poured out my heart and we cried together on the phone.  We spoke about it more that evening and Roger made a couple of calls to others who had been at the breakfast that morning as he had missed being there that morning...and now he was so sorry that he had missed it....BUT God still grabbed his heart with this.

 On Sunday, our pastor spoke about it in church during his sermon and wails just rose and rose and rose up from the depths of my soul...sobs wanted to pour out in anguish as my heart broke as I continued to hear more about this.  This was almost affecting Roger even more than it was affecting me.  God had given us both a wail.  He is moving bigtime and we cannot ignore it.  We sat there with our daughters beside us, our hearts crying out for these young girls on the streets. The last couple of days have been extremely emotional and we cannot talk or even think about it without becoming emotional.  The fact that God GRABBED both of our hearts speaks huge volumes to me.  We cannot be silent but we also cannot rush in and act without thinking either.  We have been asking God for wisdom and guidance, seeking Him and trusting that He WILL show us what we are now to do with this wail HE has given us both.  Lorna Dueck has spoken of this through Listen Up TV as well as Women's Journey of Faith, Shona Stewart has a heart for these women as she is an ex-prostitute and spoke at WJOF, I've become dear friends with a number of native women on Northern reserves in our province over the past 5 years through Child Evangelism and God leading us onto the reserves with the 5 Day Clubs throughout the summer months, Lisa Bevere spoke about the sex trade in Thailand in the Nurture Study.....all of these instances this past short while have definitely played a part in the wail being birthed in me.

So, where does my help come from?  The Lord who made the Heavens and the Earth...and He knows all about these young girls who are forced to do unspeakable things to old perverted men and young ones too who are in bondage to the evil one. I know this cannot be ignored and God is at work.  I pray for wisdom and guidance as to where to go from here.  Can there be a haven somewhere for these girls?  I know God will lead me to who I need to connect with, who WE, as husband & wife, need to speak to and to act on what He has given us.  We need prayer.  There are wonderful ministries on 20th and they all need prayer and support and encouragement.  I know God has a place for us...AND in HIS timing, He WILL show us where we are to be in support and action and encouragement.  HE sees the whole picture and how it will all come about.  I trust in HIM to show me and reveal the way and the answers to what seems to me like an extremely tough situation.  Some may think it's a hopeless situation.  But is it a hopeless one?  Absolutely not!  Does it seem incredibly huge?  Oh yes!  BUT, God IS Good and His heart breaks over this, He sees it and He cried over it too.  He will show us what we can do.....I KNOW He will.  God is LOVE God is GOOD God is HOPE God is FORGIVENESS and God is LIFE & LIGHT.  God will not let the wicked go unpunished and He WILL NOT neglect or forget about the poor and the exploited!

We are being called to AWAKEN, ARISE, ATIRE, have His ATTITUDE and heart, be an ASSET, to APPROACH Him with boldness and to ASK and be willing to ACT after He gives us the answer.  Lord, I want to follow as You lead.