Desiring Jesus

LiveWeak!

2009-06-30T16:13:00.007-05:00

Here's a motto that withstands the test of life's harsh waves. It agrees with Nature's assessment of God's finest creation. We are weak. I think a good grasp of this every once in a while can help us to really live well.

When we perceive ourselves as strong, it usually affects the way we live and perceive the world around us. We tend to believe that what we have already accomplished, enjoyed, and acquired are not to be compared with what, in our strength, we are striving for. There is no time to stop and smell the roses. For example, there is no greater earthly gift that I could enjoy more then the gift I already have in my wife. However, it seems that I take her for granted all too often.

When we recognize that we are weak, we take inventory...and then take nothing for granted.

Here are some good thoughts below from one who experiences weakness more regularly than many.

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Living Weak--Stuntz (Posted by David Skeel)

(http://bit.ly/d9uchr)

“Live strong” is a common slogan among cancer patients. I think I understand the slogan’s appeal, and I admire the spirit that lies behind it. But it doesn’t fit my experience, and I suspect I’m not alone.
Reduced life expectancy aside, the chief consequence of stage 4 cancers—even more, the chief consequence of their treatment—is weakness, not strength. Cancer and chemotherapy, taken together, are exhausting. Walking up a flight of stairs feels to me like running a couple of miles would feel to a typical out-of-shape 50-year-old, which is what I would be if I were healthy. All mental exercises are several times harder than they used to be. Concentrating takes real effort, and most of the time, I can’t pull it off—I have to read things twice (at least) in order to understand them once. My mind is two steps behind whatever conversation I’m in; I have to scramble to keep up. I feel half dead, as though a large fraction of whatever I was is gone, never to return.
In short, I can’t live strong, because there isn’t much strength left in me. But I can live weak.
What does that mean? ..."

Another quote...

"...cancer is an ugly disease, in every possible way. No wonder people recoil from it. But in the midst of all its life-sapping, soul-destroying ugliness, something amazing can happen: the most ordinary things, the most mundane tasks, take on value and beauty beyond anything I could have imagined. "

Another quote...

“Live strong” sounds to me like denial: I’m not strong, and pretending I am [strong] can’t change that fact. But I can live weak: do what I can, however small and ordinary, day by day. Some of the living—I wish it were more, but at the same time, I thank God for the “some”—is surprisingly good."

The Beauty of Gethsemane

2009-05-01T18:51:00.008-05:00

Since November I have not moved out of Matthew 26. There is something about Christ in his anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane that helps me to appreciate the Incarnation. He knows our pain. He truly knows it from experience. This helps me to appreciate His comfort and to look for it... because He is familiar with our infirmities, sorrows and weaknesses.

I have re-read that chapter at least a hundred times since November. It is a well of darkness that somehow draws up comfort from its depths. Jesus, who was voluntarily plunged into that darkness, was fully man and tasted every texture of the pain and sorrow and foreboding. Because of that cup, Christ can experientially empathize, weep and work on our behalf to accomplish our good--interwoven as one piece with his glory. However black the darkness may seem, his experience will always be the deepest and darkest, not only to propitiate God's wrath on our behalf, but to establish him as the perfect High Priest who has compassed all of our infirmities. "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4:15,16

"Come troubled believer, fret not over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies." CHSpurgeon

Judas

2009-03-20T20:34:00.014-05:00

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Judas, who would betray him, answered, "is it I, Rabbi?" He said to him, "You have said so." Matt 26:20 - 25

As I considered this sobering passage I was moved. First I was moved to pity Judas. Then I thought that God's aim in this portion of Matthew 26 was probably not for us to feel sorry for Judas in a way that might question the kindness of God; pitying Judas in the sense that he was not deserving of what he received. This passage emphasizes the greatness of the person of Christ by the greatness of the punishment reserved for that man who betrays him; "It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."

I think this passage also displays who we are apart from His intervening grace. Grace is favor given, though punishment is warranted. If I said "intervening mercy" it would sound like we are pitiful, and neither Judas nor we are pitiful. We are hard hearted. We, like Judas, heard the word of the Lord: "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (Jn 6:29), and we scorned that word. Were it not for the grace of God, we like Judas, would have continued to harden our hearts against the words of life, continued to deny the authority of Christ, and continued to walk brazenly before Him, pleasing only ourselves (Jn 12:5-6).

Now I look at this passage, and at Judas, with new eyes. The sense of pity now is the pity one feels when his own guilt is somehow pardoned, while his fellow receives the just punishment. We also deserved judgement, but we received grace. This perspective cannot embrace self-righteousness. This perspective cannot charge God.

In the mysterious providence of God, his love enfolded me, and grace intervened, and I did not wake up this morning as Judas, the "son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled"(Jn 17:12).

May I humbly thank my Heavenly Father throughout this day for choosing me to be his own adopted child from before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4).