Suddenly I feel myself transformed and changed; it is joy unspeakable. My mind is exhilarated; I lose the memory of past trials; my intelligence is clarified; my desires are satisfied. I grasp something inwardly as with the embracement of love.
~Hugh of St. Victor (1096-1141)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
~ Peter, in 1 Peter 1
Oh beloved, it is true. Life can hurt. There are things within and without that drive us to the brink of our ability to handle things. The pain of our existence is nearly more than we can bear sometimes. But thankfully, it is never beyond what we are supposed to bear.
There is relief and the relief is not temporary. It is not some sort of a bandaid to the pain. The relief is eternal. It is not even really relief. It is healing.
And it is Him.
Early on, we thought we knew this jesus. He was a platitude on a plaque that someone had purchased down at the gospel book store. And it was not that the platitude was wrong. In fact the platitude was probably being shared by someone who was more in the space from which this fool of a writer is writing now.
But we read it, and we really had no idea. Something about calming storms, or footprints in some sand, or something like that. But, then the pain hit in our own lives and the platitudes felt just like some sort of irrelevant garbage flying by in the wind of the real storm that was now brewing around us.
And in our own heads, the storm was even worse. There was this tremendous cognitive dissonance to the things we had heard about this jesus. We were told that he cared about our problems, but he was nowhere to be found in the detritus swirling around in our brains.
Then, anything we did to bring comfort to ourselves only made things worse. We pumped in the food and the entertainment. We took the trips and read the books. We even went down to the church and listened to the gospel preacher tell us little more about this jesus.
Nothing was working, so we ramped up the efforts. We pumped in the chemicals and tried to involve ourselves in anything, anything at all that would distract us from the growing and pulsing wound in our souls. We felt like we would now be willing to give nearly anything, even our life to make the pain go away.
But then He, Jesus (yeah, the Real One) speaks to us through His Word, or a real friend, or maybe just we are finally weak enough to let the platitude on the plaque on the wall mean something to us… He says, “I have already done that.”
We jump, “Done what?!?”
“I died for the pain you are feeling. I have felt it. I feel it now dear friend. You are in agony.”
“Yes! Oh please, make it stop!”
“I already have. Do you believe?”
We are incredulous, “How did you do that? I still feel miserable!”
“Let go beloved. Just let the pain drop. I will not yank it from you. But when you let it go, it will be swallowed up in victory. I did not just die for you. I did indeed die as you. This death can be yours, and you will become more alive than you ever dreamed possible.”
“But,” we say, “how is this possible?”
“I AM no longer dead. My death was so powerful that it swallowed all other death down with it. I went on down through death and kicked the door out from its other side. I am alive forevermore. And this Life is so large that it can belong fully to anyone who comes to it through Me.”
“Oh my! Why did you do this?”
And He answers, “Oh, it’s still just a platitude to most. Still, would you hear the answer?”
Something in us now is just bursting with Hope. Something is different. All of the platitudes of the past are starting to form into a harmonious gathering in our heart. They are beginning to make sense. We take a stab of a guess at an answer, “You. You, love me? Could it really be true?”
And suddenly there is silence. But it is not because He is not answering. It is finally because the whirling winds of doubt and pain and fear and sin and self have finally completely run out of energy. The sun that drove them has gone dark, and a new Son is rising in their stead.
It is so quiet.
So still.
So real.
“You Love me! You. You Love me!!!! Oh how i Love Thee my, my… my King! My Friend! My Saviour!” He smiles, “I AM all of these and more. May I hold you for awhile? You have some healing to do. We could begin right away…”
So, are you struggling with the platitudes? Do they seem to make not too much sense? Tonight is your night. Time to let go of the voices in your head, and start listening to the Love you are hearing within your heart. He is real. He is Mighty to Save. Time to let Him do this – in you.
And don’t be surprised if you find yourself in Love very, very quickly.
