“The heart is stretched through suffering, and enlarged. But O the agony of this enlarging of the heart, that one may be prepared to enter into the anguish of others!…The cross as dogma is painless speculation; the cross as lived suffering is anguish and glory. Yet God, out of the pattern of his own heart, has planted the cross along the road of holy obedience. And he enacts in the hearts of those he loves the miracle of willingness to welcome suffering and to know it for what it is – the final seal of his gracious love” (Thomas R. Kelly, Rich in Years).

Lord, may all your children always be granted the miracle of willingness in whatever you ask of us. Help us to daily practice surrender as we lay down our own desires to make room for Your own desires to grow deep in our hearts.

Amen.

“The image Jesus left with the world, the cross, the most common image in the Christian religion, is proof that God cares about our suffering and pain. He died of it. Today the image is coated with gold and worn around the necks of beautiful girls, a symbol of how far we can stray from the reality of history. But it stands, unique among all religions of the world. Many of them have gods. But only one has a God who cared enough to become a man and to die” (Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts?).

The cross is more than a fashion statement. It’s more than a symbol of the religion of Christianity.

The cross represents the worst of humanity, and one of its most brutal and degrading ways to execute a human being. All you need to see a glimpse of what a crucifixion was really like is to watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which comes closest to capturing the gory reality but still falls short of the graphic nature of dying on a cross.

God knows and understands our suffering. He knows and understands death. He is not unaware of His people who cry out to him day and night.

Because of the cross and the resurrection, COVID-19 will not have the final say. Death and the grave will not have the final word.

When we celebrate Easter Sunday in a few weeks, we celebrate that not that God wins but that God has already won. Death, hell, the grave, he coronavirus, AIDS, cancer, all other illnesses, and anything else this world can throw up against us, have been forever defeated.

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:31-39, The Message).

See how the majestic tiny panther takes her rest after a hard day of self-quarantining. She practiced her social distancing and apparently, it was quite exhausting.

She refuses to open her eyes until the weekend officially starts.

I can’t say that I blame her.

“A seed only flourishes by staying in the ground in which it is sown. When you keep digging the seed up to check whether it is growing, it will never bear fruit. Think of yourself as a little seed planted in rich soil. All you have to do is stay there and trust that the soil contains everything you need to grow. This growth takes place even when you do not feel it” (Henri Nouwen).

It helps if you think of this season of self-quarantining and social distancing as a time of waiting. It’s a time where God is saying to us, “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.”

Sometimes, it’s good to stop and reflect. Even so, many of us will never take the time to pause unless we’re forced to stop. Either you pick a time to rest or your body will pick it for you, as I heard it said before.

Lately, it feels like life has hit the pause button on the Celestial Remote. You can’t rush and hurry when there’s nowhere to go.

May we all use this time as a time as a sacred pause, a time to learn again how to discern the voice of God. I in particular need all the practice and help I can get for hearing God speak to me.

But this is the season for it. May we use our time wisely in this season so that we may be better image-bearers of God when the normal resumes.

I heard these words spoken by Chris Brooks during the online service for Kairos. I keep thinking about his definition of white privilege– if it’s not my problem, then it’s not a problem at all.

During these times, some are more at risk than others. Some face greater challenges. Some are being inconvenienced while others are fighting for their very lives.

It’s easy to get caught up in the prevalent mode of panic that has pervaded our culture and forget that God is still in charge. He’s still working all things together for our good and His glory.

May these words wash over you and become your prayer for the days ahead:

“May we who are merely inconvenienced
     Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
     Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
     Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.

May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close
     Remember those who have no options.

May we who have to cancel our trips
     Remember those that have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market
     Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
     Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country,
     let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other,
     Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.

Amen”  (Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich).

Ok, this one’s a bit lengthy. I give you forewarning in case your attention span is feeling a bit short this evening. This essentially says that the meek and mild Jesus that so many teach about today is not the Jesus of the Bible. Neither is Christianity a meek and mild faith for the fainthearted.

“Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as ‘a bad press.’ We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine — ‘dull dogma,’ as people call it.

The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man — and the dogma is the drama… This is the dogma we find so dull — this terrifying drama of which God is the victim and the hero. If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?

The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore — on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium.

We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certifying Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious ladies. To those who knew him, however, he in no way suggested a milk-and-water person; they objected to him as a dangerous firebrand.

True, he was tender to the unfortunate, patient with honest inquirers, and humble before heaven; but he insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites; he referred to King Herod as ‘that fox’; he went to parties in disreputable company and was looked upon as a ‘gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners’; he assaulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings out of the Temple; he drove a coach-and-horses through a number of sacrosanct and hoary regulations; he cured diseases by any means that came handy, with a shocking casualness in the matter of other people’s pigs and property; he showed no proper deference for wealth or social position; when confronted with neat dialectical traps, he displayed a paradoxical humor that affronted serious-minded people, and he retorted by asking disagreeably searching questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb.

He was emphatically not a dull man in his human lifetime, and if he was God, there can be nothing dull about God either” (Dorothy Sayers).

“God is our shelter and our strength.
    When troubles seem near, God is nearer, and He’s ready to help.
So why run and hide?
No fear, no pacing, no biting fingernails.
    When the earth spins out of control, we are sure and fearless.
    When mountains crumble and the waters run wild, we are sure and fearless.
Even in heavy winds and huge waves,
    or as mountains shake, we are sure and fearless.

A pure stream flows—never to be cut off—
    bringing joy to the city where God makes His home,
    the sacred site where the Most High chooses to live.
The True God never sleeps and always resides in the city of joy;
    He makes it unstoppable, unshakable.
    When it awakes at dawn, the True God has already been at work.
Trouble is on the horizon for the outside nations, not long until kingdoms will fall;
    God’s voice thunders and the earth shakes.
You know the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies, surrounds us and protects us;
    the True God of Jacob is our shelter, close to His heart.

Come, gaze, fix your eyes on what the Eternal can do.
    Amazing, He has worked desolation here on this battlefield, earth.
God can stop wars anywhere in the world.
    He can make scrap of all weapons: snap bows, shatter spears,
    and burn shields.
‘Be still, be calm, see, and understand I am the True God.
    I am honored among all the nations.
    I am honored over all the earth.’
You know the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies, surrounds us and protects us;
    the True God of Jacob is our shelter, close to His heart” (Psalm 46, The Voice).

I feel like a piece of my childhood died today. I have so many memories that stir up whenever I hear any one of Kenny Rogers’ songs. Hearing the news that he had passed away was like a punch to the gut.

I never met him and didn’t really know that much about him. I do know that he was an absolute legend, a country music maverick to forged his own musical path instead of following the trails of others who had gone before him.

He had a very distinctive sound built around an immediately recognizable voice that was both warm and worn. So many of his songs are iconic and are part of the fabric of the 70s and 80s.

One of my favorite songs he recorded is 20 Years Ago about a nostalgic look back on growing up in the 60s. I love these words:

“All my memories from those days come gather round me
What I’d give if they could take me back in time
It almost seems like yesterday
Where do the good times go?
Life was so much easier twenty years ago” (Daniel Eugene Tyler, Wood A Newton, Michael I Noble, Michael Christoper Spriggs).

“There is a different kind of prayer without ceasing; it is longing. Whatever you may be doing, if you long for the day of everlasting rest do not cease praying. If you do not wish to cease praying, then do not cease your longing. Your persistent longing is your persistent voice. But when love grows cold, the heart grows silent. Burning love is the outcry of the heart! If you are filled with longing all the time, you will keep crying out, and if your love perseveres, your cry will be heard without fail” (Augustine’s Expositions of the Psalms).

I can think of no better time than now for God’s people to pray without ceasing out of a longing that only God Himself could ever satisfy. Let us spur each other on to lives of ceaseless prayers of thanksgiving and supplication for those who suffer around the world with the longing that God in Jesus will soon come and restore all things to rights.

“They have taken the Lord out of his tomb and we do not know where they have laid him,” Mary Magdalene said, and we can say this with her in times of doubt and questioning.

Then there’s that last glorious chapter of Saint Luke, where Jesus says, “Why are you so perturbed? Why do questions arise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see.”

Yes, sometimes it is most surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ, especially in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow, and the joy of our calling assures us we are on the right path.

Most certainly, it is easier to believe now that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the sycamore trees in the wasteland across the street, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park.

There are wars and rumors of war, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, God’s continuing promise to us that he is with us always, with his comfort and joy, if we will only ask” (Dorothy Day, Selected Writings).