a forehead of bronze

we had a rich day yesterday, spending much of the day visiting with people in La Chureca that Dan/Jessenia are cultivating relationships with.  They are greeted by so many with joy, and it is apparent that they are earning trust in this broken community as ones who represent Christ and his love.  We were able to listen to the stories and pray with about a half-dozen families; the stories are impossible to convey and duplicate, but suffice to say they are filled with brokenness, heartbreak, and generational cycles.  Each story is different, but in each one you can see Christ at work to bring wholeness and healing, to fulfill his promises to his sons and daughters.  It was striking that there was a common theme today of people who shared their story of at one time getting out of the dump, through a job, a home, etc… but choosing to return to it for various reasons.

Even those in great need of restoration will turn away from the opportunity because it is uncomfortable to change.

Seeing such tangible examples of people in need of restoration, in every sense of the word, brought us to a rich discussion of Jeremiah 3 & 33 last night.  I wont quote them at length, because they are significant, but one of the main themes that stood out to me what the idea of how hard our heads and our hearts can be.

In verse 3, God uses the following description of his people’s unwillingness to be broken by him: “you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.”  This is not a common phrase for us, to say the least, but I was struck by this description of a forehead; it led me to look into the meaning, which is found similarly used (minus the descriptive language of a whore) in Ezekiel 3:7 (a hard forehead and a stubborn heart) and Isaiah 48:4 (forehead of bronze).

The point is that we are all in need of restoration, evidenced by our physical condition (think La Chureca) or our spiritual condition (think ourselves and our neighbors).  In either case, we can have a forehead of bronze, where we are so hard-headed, that we refuse to allow the Lord to work in our hearts, leading to the description of a stubborn heart.  And so, despite the great need for restoration, people walk away from it because they do not desire to change.

May it be an opportunity for us to search our own hearts and minds today, seeing if perhaps we are having a forehead of bronze in regards to our restoration.  We’ll be praying along with you.

Today looks like a day of rain, but a good day for it as we’ll heading into the mountains to a “solution” that some are working towards where families are being moved from the dump to a farming community where they are taught a way to sustain themselves.   Then, we’ll be spending the afternoon at D/J’s girl’s home once again.

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~ by dougmelder on May 17, 2011.