Today is not a day for good news. It’s not the day to look at the silver lining, or even the promise of what is coming. Traditionally, it’s a day of fasting, silence, and mourning.
Well that’s just not ok, is it? We don’t do well, as a culture, with unmitigated sorrow.
Until we find ourselves, as individuals or families, in the middle of the suffering. Then we don’t want to hear about how there is a silver lining. We don’t want to look for the bright side. We don’t want to hear about God’s plan for good. Those things hold truth, but the time is not right.
You know why? It’s because our souls know we need to walk the road of sorrow. We just need to be sad, sorrowful, mournful and honest for a while. It’s the “and” we are always looking for- yes, we will hear about silver linings and blessings and promises. Yes, we will not grieve as those who have no hope. But we will grieve, and many in our community know this well.
Today is a day for walking the road of sorrow with Christ. Not because there is no hope of coming joy.
We walk this road because Christ walked it, and he suffered. He needed his friends, and his friends betrayed him. He asked the Father to take away the coming events “if it is your will”, and his Father said no. He knew there was no other way, and he agreed “for the joy set before him.” The crowd who welcomed him as a king now chanted “Crucify him!” Lied about, spit on, brutally beaten, burdened with the instrument of his own torture.
If we want to call ourselves friends of God, we walk this path with him, for he walked this path for us.
We cannot know the value of the friendship he offers if we insulate ourselves from the cost he willingly paid.
#prayersformychildren #Lent2020 #GoodFriday
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