Outside Reading #3- November 30, 2016- No Rest for the Wicked

“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord. Isaiah 48:22

When I was a child, I was given a hand me down Barbie doll motorized car. I was okay with it but did not particularly care for it. A thought eventually came to me to go ahead and have fun with it by smashing it to pieces. So, I got a hammer and went to town. My parents, upon seeing me commit this act grounded me. This was my first and only grounding ever in my life. I still remembered the guilt and conviction as an elementary school kid knowing that I had done this. Because of this evil act my heart, for a day, was filled with unrest, confusion over, “was I wrong for doing it?” and inner distress, trying to synthesize this new righteous rejection felt by me from my parents. There was no peace at that time because, for a while, conviction plagued my heart. For those who’s consciences are not smeared, our conscience warns us of things that are wrong to our soul and pervades the body with sensations of regret over the decision, thought, or act that has occurred. This gives us a place for repentance and remorse so that one can be guided in making right the situation because the area of offense has been identified. Once resolved, peace is found, and the conviction subsides with an intrusion of an atmosphere of relief. To those who are considered wicked, persons with a smeared conscience (for definition sake) will have no peace, because no space can be made for peace until the conscience is realigned. Peace comes as a result of righteousness where that which is darkness is brought to the light and the light is brought to the dark places. The wicked who live in the realm of no rest will try to take up counterfeit rest and make themselves comatose in whatever way, just to feel at least a small disoriented type of peace. Furthermore, this statement is made by God, as if decreeing the divine consequence of the land if His spiritual laws are broken. This realm is hell, the place of complete restlessness of the spirit, soul, and body, filled with confusion and pain of separation from all graces. In this life, one gets to decide whether he will be at peace and live or be at disharmony and die. Either way it starts now and crosses over to the other side.