Month: March 2021

Truth. What about it frightens us so much? We want it when it’s good. We run from it when it’s bad. 

As we get closer to Easter we can reflect that God is truth and just as Jesus could not be buried, the truth cannot be buried either.  Both God and truth have resurrection power.  When we embrace the truth, we embrace God.  When we follow the truth, we are following God. Anytime we seek the truth, whether we realize it or not, we are seeking God. God is love. He can never go against that. It would do us well to remember that when we are frightened by the truth. It may be hard, but since God is love and truth, then even hard truths that we become aware of are signs of God‘s great love for us.  

I love you!  It’s a boy! You’re hired! You won the bid for the house! All these facts are truths we love to give and receive. Even something as simple as, “dinner is ready” can make a hungry one soar with joy.

On the other hand, the truths that are difficult to hear are often difficult to accept. The diagnosis of a serious illness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a dream you worked hard for, a betrayal and finding out you had been believing a lie are all examples of difficult truths to swallow. At times we try to bury them or we refuse to believe what we have discovered.  It does us no good, however.  As I said before, God is truth and just as God cannot be buried, neither can the truth. It begs to be noticed.  The acceptance of the hard truths can be difficult. Acceptance will lead us on a different path, but we can be certain, as difficult as it is, we will not be alone. It is a path that God is sending us on and it is a path of love. It would do us well in these times to remember that God’s loving plans for us are often discovered by the uncovering and the following of the truth.   

We are all sinners and there are times when we fall and do things that are wrong. To avoid facing the truth of what we have done, we try to bury it in our subconscious. We can only get away with that for so long. The truth will not be kept down and buried.  It will eventually bubble up to the surface. The deeper we try to bury it, the harder is the work to deal with it. How much easier it can be to heal if we are mindful that within the hurt is a God who loves us unconditionally and the fear of looking at the truth is fear of being a part of mutual love.  Mutual love?  What do I mean by that?  In our love for God, we cannot bear to look at what we have done to hurt Him.  In His love for us, He desires that we look because when we do, we will find that He is not resurrecting the truth so we can see His anger.  He is resurrecting it so we can see His mercy and love.  There in the depths of the truth is a mutual love that is stronger than death and just as truth cannot be buried, neither can love, who is God.

Of course, there are times when we know the truth and others refuse to accept it.  We may even be attacked for speaking truth.  In those times we can take comfort in the truth, in God.  We can rest in knowing that the truth will resurrect and never stays buried in the tomb no matter how much man or the devil may try.  Easter morning proves that.  We can also find comfort in reflecting on the mercy of God.  When truth is difficult and one’s emotions are taking over, it is hard to sit back and reflect.   Oftentimes people lash out without thinking. It is almost as if God has given them a safety net in those times.  When they aren’t thinking straight, instead of attacking truth, who is God, they attack the messenger.  Yes. God is in us and we are being attacked, but it is almost as if attacking truth is a direct hit since God is truth.  When we are attacked it is almost as if we are taking the greater hit so God doesn’t have to.  It is like we are shielding Him.  If we were to keep both those reflections in mind when being attacked, we may end up staying calm and being a model of God’s patient mercy…a shield for our neighbor against our anger…while, at the same time, shielding God by defending truth. 

God is love. God is truth. Truth is love. Maybe if we remember these points when we are hit with hard truths or we find that we are the messenger of truth, we can better deal with the situation. Our immediate reaction is to treat the hard truths as a foe.  If we take a pause, we can see that that foe is really a friend and that friend is God.  If we are the messenger, we can then be the model of that very dear and loving friend.

Prayerfully Reflect on the Following:

Can you recall a past hard truth that sent you down a different path that ended up to be filled with love?  In looking back, can you now see God’s hand in it?  

Were you ever attacked for being a messenger of truth?  Can you see that by defending truth you were defending God? Can you see the importance of defending truth, while at the same time being God’s mercy? In the future would it help to think that when people are attacking you for being the messenger, you are shielding God, who is truth, from being directly attacked and, at the same time, being given the opportunity to be His mercy by shielding your neighbor from any attacks that may come from you?

“I am the way, the truth and the life.” John 14:6a

“Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.” 1John 3:18

“And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” John 1:16

“But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to all truth.” John 16:13

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 32:8

“The Word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Proverbs 30:5

“Assuming that you have heard of Him and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,  and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Ephesians 4:20

“If we say, we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1John 1:8

Here there and everywhere. That’s how it can feel at times. There are so many things pulling at us at any given moment. We walk along our path journeying towards God, but the world begs for our attention and as we lose the present moment, we often lose our way.  

Yes, there are times when it feels that the more we try to be on the path towards God, the harder it is to be certain we are on it. That’s when we can have the greatest peace if we take a pause and let our focus be on the present moment, God and trust Him more.

When it looks like you are in the storm, remember that in that moment He is in the boat with such a great peace that He sleeps right through it.

When it looks like a good Friday is the end it never is because God hasn’t had the last word yet.  Stay calm.

When it looks like there is no clear way to go, stop and look at the present moment where you may find that He is ready to part the sea.

When it seems like you are going uphill with 100 pounds on your back in the pouring rain and you question if you are in God’s will as you certainly thought when you first started out, remember when God wants it there will be a battle and the greater the importance, the greater will the battle be.  That alone can give us great peace in the battle.

The point is, God is always there. He hasn’t left. He only asks that you be mindful of Him, remain thankful and trust that He is your compass.  You don’t need to know where north is.  He knows.  In the moment keep your focus on Him and while your heart is sincerely on His will, He will make it so. There is no need to be anxious. He knows your heart and He will not steer your boat wrong.

We should always put time aside daily to be prayerfully in the presence of God, but when the moments come when we feel overwhelmed and we don’t know which way to turn, time alone with God is essential.  The storm is not the time to drop prayer and get distracted with worry. Trust that He will calm your heart. He will give you peace. He will remind you that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. No situation is bigger than Him.  Hold His hand and He will bring you through it.

God gives you what you need in the moment. As we close, maybe Mary Magdalene is a great way to remember all of this.  When we are anxious, we tend to look either ahead or behind. Jesus said that Mary Magdalene should not give the perfume to the poor because she would need it for His burial (John 12:3).  In that moment, because He was her focus, she could trust that He took care of her needs even if she and the disciples didn’t fully understand what He meant.  He told her to hold onto the perfume and at the same time He stuck up for her and what she had done.  Those two actions met her immediate needs and that is all she really needed to understand. Later, at the time of His death, it turned out that she did need the perfume for His burial…or so she thought when she was headed for His tomb.  When going to the tomb she needed the perfume in anticipation that it would be used to anoint the body of Jesus for His burial.  When she got there, however, she saw that that was not why she needed it. He had risen.  It turned out that the purpose of the perfume being needed for Jesus’s burial was correct, but not in the way she would have thought it to be.  God knew, however.  In the present moment she needed it when she was heading for the tomb (John 20).  The sorrow in her heart would have been too great if she headed to the tomb knowing she had no perfume to anoint His body with.  As it turned out, she did not need it for His burial, but for the peace and calm as she journeyed to the tomb to ready His body for burial.  She couldn’t have known this, but in each present moment, she did what was expected and the future need worked out without her worrying about it.  She did not need to worry about the future. She only needed to know the calm Jesus offered in each of the present moments.  

As we move closer and closer to Holy Week, it is a good time to be mindful of staying calm. Be anxious for nothing. Pray.  Keep your heart open and let God lead in each moment.  He will show you the way.  He will show you what you need to do now so the future works it’s way out  even if you don’t understand.  It will always works out when Jesus is your focus and your compass. 

Prayerfully reflect on any part above and the following:

“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything  by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; on your own intelligence do not rely; in all your ways be mindful of Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Prov 3:5-6)

“And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you are also called in one body. And be thankful.”  (Col 3:15)

The story of Jesus asleep in the boat.  (Luke 8:22-25)

The story of the parting and crossing of the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:10-31)

THE CRUCIFIXION 

Today is my third and final reflection on picking up our daily crosses.  I’d like to look at how Jesus’s prayer life and what He taught manifested itself at the time of His crucifixion.

First He went to the Garden of Gethsamane to pray and He separated Himself from His disciples so that He could PRAY QUIETLY ALONE.  “Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray” (Matthew 26:36).  This is in line with His teaching about praying alone in quiet places.  At Gethsamane we see He was modeling what He taught when we recall He had previously said,  “When you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6) Because Jesus always modeled what he taught, He must have modeled this completely at Calvary as well. 

When He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” (Luke 23:34), we see He forgave just as He taught on countless occasions.   

Knowing He always lived what He taught, we can trust He had to have given thanks and believed as well.  Last week we reflected on Jesus teaching the importance of giving thanks and believing our prayers have been heard and answered.  He, therefore, had to know that in spite of what it looked like, He would conquer death.  This belief could only have been the result of much prayer and years of believing that He would conquer it…and He did.  When Jesus said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), He knew that all He believed that had to be accomplished in order for us to be saved had been completed even though His death looked like the opposite.  Three days later He rose.  His prayers were answered.  He won.  He had the relationship, and in growing closer to the Father, He came to know His will and greatly desired to conquer death.  He prayed, trusted, forgave, hoped and believed.  Those are the lessons of how we should act when we carry our crosses.  Let’s not embrace fear like we so often think of the cross as being, but instead take on a view that it will make us conquerors.  “In all things we have complete victory through Him who loved us!” (Rom 8:37).

Some may question this because  they know that Jesus asked that the cup be taken from Him.  “Father,’ he prayed, ‘My Father! All things are possible for You. Take this cup of suffering away from Me. Not what I want, but what You want” (Mark 14:35-36).  Wanting the suffering to be taken away did not mean He wanted to drop His mission.  How often do parents express that a situation they find themselves going through is not what they signed up for?  How many times do they say if they had known, they wouldn’t have signed up?  The truth is they would have.  They greatly love their children and would go through anything for them.  When a great desire is in our heart, it is best not to know all that will be required to achieve it.  At the foot of the mountain, we enthusiastically say yes to being a parent.  Knowing what we may encounter on the path going up the mountain may prevent us from even trying.  When the cross comes, we may want it to be taken away, but the bottom line is we would never want it if it meant a door of harm to our children would be open. Love sacrifices and the cross teaches us.  “No greater has a man that He lays down his life for a friend” (John 15:13) is foundational to being able to act as conquerors when carrying a cross.  We know that as hard as things can get, when we choose poorly, God always takes free will and uses it for good.  Trust in that truth and how sacrificial love plays into it is what Jesus modeled.  He may have wanted the suffering to stop, but not His sacrificial  mission of love.  The desire to save us was there.  It was being realized.  He loved us.  He would see it through if that was how the mission was to be a success because He knew His Father ultimately uses all bad for good. 

Adding to Jesus’s ability to see it through was the added comfort in being able to remember when His Father intervened when He was in Nazareth and some in the community wanted to kill Him.  “When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger. They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took Him to the top of the hill on which the town was built. They meant to throw Him over the cliff, but He walked through the middle of the crowd and went His way.  (Luke 4:28-30).  It was not His time to battle against and conquer death.  If Good Friday was not the time or means by which He would do battle, He knew the Father would turn it around and intervene just as before.  He had prepared for this in so many different ways because HE HAD A RELATIONSHIP THAT WAS STRONG DUE TO HIS PRAYER LIFE.  It didn’t just happen.  He worked at the relationship and that made Him free to love and conquer.

Some may say that their cross came out of left field had had nothing to do with their purpose.  I would argue that in some ways they always do because we are where we are at any given moment because of our choices that are made because of who we are.  Simon of Cyrene is an example of this.  Scripture tells us, “The soldiers led Jesus away, and as they were going, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon who was coming into the city from the country. They seized him, put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus” (Luke 23:26).  It is said that Simon was coming from the country or fields. Perhaps he worked there and was heading home. His home and his way of making a living all brought him to where he was at that time.  It is also said that he and his family converted to Christianity.  God wins.  Did Simon pray and believe? Perhaps he prayed for the salvation of his family.  He received it through a cross that was unexpected, but He was a conqueror in Christ Jesus.  In all crosses, we are given the opportunity to be victors.  

Jesus gave us the formula. Pray so as to be close to God the Father and believe. We know in our mission/vocation, it will be hard, but we know that “in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).

What about death?  While we can learn much from Jesus when those difficult times come, we can also see that the crucifixion showed us the pain of the cross at death.  While we may not die on a cross, we often find that at death the cross comes in the form of a bed we cannot get up from when our mission is complete.  In the end, it is not death, but the ultimate victorious conquest.  It is that hope that always gets us through.  On the other side of the cross is a victory for those who believe.  While this is true of all crosses because they present us with the opportunity to lose our life in some way so it can be saved, it is never more powerfully seen as when we die and go to Heaven.

How different we would be if we looked at the cross through the lens of hope, of believing what we pray for is being accomplished and that good will be the fruit.  How different it would be if we saw ourselves, not as victims, but as conquerors filled with love just as Jesus was even while experiencing unimaginable pain.  This can only happen by seeing the cross not as a weapon of defeat to be feared, but as an instrument that brings us to our form of a wonderful resurrection because with each cross we know that “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 18:8).

PRAYERFULLY REFLECT ON THE FOLLOWING:.  

Are there crosses in your life now that you can embrace as Jesus did by being close to the Father, trusting, believing and hoping?  Can you see that sacrificial love is foundational to it in some way?  Not seeing it does not mean it isn’t somehow a means to desire you have based on love.  If you cannot see the sacrificial love behind it, offer the cross up as a prayer.  In that way you will make what you cannot see, seen. 

Can you see the good that has come out of past crosses?  Did it ever turn out that a cross was the means to getting a past prayer answered?  In looking back, can you see former crosses can now be seen as a means to give you courage and strength for one you may be experiencing now?

Last week we reflected in the practice of giving thanks to God in advance for answering your prayers.  Have you been practicing that?  Are you living as if your prayers have already been answered or are you living in fear and worry?  How do you think this practice may have helped Jesus in leading up to the cross and experiencing the crucifixion?  In light of this prayer practice, how do you think Jesus felt about all His thankfulness and believing being manifested at His resurrection?

Prayerfully reflect on the scriptures cited above and bring in any cross you may be carrying currently.  Talk to Jesus about these.

PRAYER IS FOUNDATIONAL 

Today I am picking up where I left off last week in my reflections about picking up our daily crosses.  

Some crosses seem catastrophic and that is what we most often think of when we think of Jesus and His crucifixion.  What starts out like any other day can suddenly hand us a cross that is extremely heavy.  We are going about our day and suddenly we are like Simon of Cyrene.  We are handed a heavy cross we never expected.  

How do we carry and rise up from our crosses when they grip us with fear?  How do we break from the impression that these crosses are to be feared and that the closer we get to Jesus, the more these fearful crosses may come?  In the crucifixion of Jesus,  I think it helps to think of the lessons Jesus taught in His ministry and how He lived them out in the cross. I think the most powerful message is the message of hope that was rooted in many of the things He did and said so let’s focus on some foundational teachings of Jesus.

Prayer is foundational to all things.  Jesus always prayed so we know He was very close to the Father. We know that we are all capable of that closeness because Jesus emptied Himself of His Divinity so He could be like us. The closeness Jesus had was not because He was the second person of the Trinity. He emptied Himself of that.  His closeness came from prayer.  . Like Him we can experience the growth in prayer and in relationship with the Father.  We are, in fact, all called to do that.  “This attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but He did not think that by force He should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of His own free will He gave up all He had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humbled and walked the path of obedience all the way to death—His death on the cross.” (Phil 2:5-8).  Herein lies our hope.  We can model Jesus in prayer and by that be closer to God, the Father.  That closeness will give us great trust and courage.  United to Jesus as a child of the Father, we are assured that we will always be taken care of.   

But that closeness also ended in a cross!  Suddenly our hope shrivels and we become fearful.

Given we know that Jesus emptied Himself to be like us and it is prayer that brought Him closer to God, we can understand that through prayer He came to know His mission was to conquer death. He couldn’t conquer an enemy without facing it and wrestling with it. He eventually knew the cross was coming.  “Then Jesus began to teach His disciples: ‘The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law. He will be put to death, but three days later He will rise to life.’ He made this very clear to them. So Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But Jesus turned around, looked at His disciples, and rebuked Peter. ‘Get away from Me Satan,’ he said. ‘Your thoughts don’t come from God but from human nature.” (Mark 8:31-33). If He emptied Himself of His Divinity, He could only have known what His mission was and what was coming through a deep relationship with God through prayer.  He emptied Himself of His Divinity so if He was not thinking like a man, it was because He had a deep union with God the Father.  When you are in union with God and you want something badly enough your heart is filled up with love and you don’t run from the cross.  There is a powerful purpose tied up in it. Again, when we understand that our purpose is tied up in the cross, we can focus on the love that is foundational and we can have hope.  Suddenly the cross of being hung up on the phone trying to straighten out a medical bill for our spouse isn’t seen through the lens of victimhood and why me.  It is seen through the lens of love and we have this cross because of the gift of our spouse.  We are straightening it out for their good.  Love is central.  Is it pleasant?  More than likely not, but we wouldn’t ever think to abandon it out of love.

But there is more.

Jesus said give thanks, pray and believe.  Another strong message of the power of hope.   “For this reason I tell you: when you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. And when you stand and pray forgive anything you may have against anyone so that your father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done” (Mark 11:24-25).  In raising up Lazarus, Jesus started out His prayer with thanksgiving that His Father had heard His petition.  “Jesus looked up and said, ‘I thank you, Father, that you listen to me. I know that you always listen to you but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me” (Luke 11:41-42).  He was thankful ahead of time that His prayer would be answered just as it always had been.  He had no reason to believe that would ever be any different.  He had no reason to ever start out prayers of petition without ever thinking His prayers would not be answered.  The same is true for us.

Jesus gave us the formula that would get us through any difficulty. Pray always so as to be close to God the Father, be thankful, have hope, trust and believe. We know in our mission/vocation, it will be hard, but we know that “in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).  The deeper our prayer life, the more at peace we will have be because of this truth. 

So how did Jesus prayer life manifest itself at the time of His crucifixion?  We will cover that next week.

PRAYERFULLY REFLECT ON THE FOLLOWING:.  

Are there crosses in your life now that you can embrace by seeing your vocation and purpose being tied up in them?  Can you see the love that is central so as to help you carry the burden? 

Do you make it a practice to thank God in advance for answering your prayers?  Do you live as if they have already been answered or do you live in fear and worry?  

Jesus emptied Himself of His Divinity so He could share in our humanity.  As part of our humanity, He showed us that when we empty ourselves of our humanity, He can fill us with His Divinity.  It is there that the union occurs.  How can you improve your prayer life so that your union with God may grow? 

Prayerfully reflect on the scriptures cited above and bring in any cross you may be carrying currently.  Talk to Jesus about these.

Prayerfully reflect on some scripture passages that refer to Jesus praying. Here are some, but there are many more:  MATT 14:23, LUKE 9:18, LUKE 9:28 and John 11: 41-42.