A Pinched People

Psalm 39:10 says “Won’t YOU stop punishing me?”  A cry from the Psalmist to GOD.  A serious study I was typing.  An in depth, deep work.  But as I proofed my page, I read “Won’t YOU stop pinching me?”  That simple typo made me think.

My Dad loves to tell of going to church with his mother.  As a young boy, he would lose interest in the sermon and start to fidget.  My kind and gentle grandmother would pinch him under the arm on the tricep to help him refocus.  From my understanding, that pinch felt akin to a cattle prod heated to just below the melting point of steel.  She pinched him because she loved him.  She wanted him to learn the importance of sitting still and listening.

Hebrews 12:7a says For those whom the LORD loves HE disciplines.  Discipline is not pleasant but as a child of GOD, we are to expect correction.  Sometimes light—a gentle prodding to the right path.  Sometimes hard—punishment designed to get our attention.

I know discipline will come, but I wonder what I do want from GOD?  The correction of a pinching on the tricep or the delayed punishment that comes later?

Dear LORD, I pray that we will be a pinched people, ones that respond to your immediate correction.  I pray that we will pay attention.  We will learn to sit still and listen to YOU.  And I pray we will praise YOU when that pinching comes…