What a Week...

I logged in and discovered I hadn't blogged in almost a month - so much for blogging at least once a week this year! Oh well, it's been a hectic month, and a hectic week. My church journeyed with Jesus into Jerusalem, sought to live with the mind of Christ in midweek worship, at with Jesus at the table, prayed at the foot of the cross, and celebrated His glorious resurrection today.

Our lives often look like Holy Week. We have highs of joyful moments, when the world seems right, and when we feel great about ourselves. We have struggle with doing what is just and right, all the while needing to remain within the conventions of social norms. We do things to harm other people (intentionally or unintentionally), but don't know how to ask for forgiveness. We resort to violence of all kinds, rather than making peace. We work with people that cause us to remain silent, even though we have done nothing wrong. We feel afflicted, beaten down, and dragging through life. Our hearts and souls are pierced and spilled out for the world to see.

Yet, no matter what our life is like, or how we find ourselves identifying with Jesus, we simply cannot put ourselves in his place. "What would Jesus do?" has less of a place than we'd like, because what we experience in life is nothing like Jesus experienced. We may feel people hate us, deal us an unfair hand, or wonder why the world is cruel - but we have not experienced such things in any way like Jesus did. We may feel tired and weary, with the weight of the world on our shoulders - but "our cross to bear" weighs nothing in comparison to Jesus. I cannot imagine living a life where my closest friends were two-faced; where people mocked, scorned, and beat me; where people plotted against me for my life; where people forced me to carry the weapon that would kill me; where my hands and feet would be bloody and full of holes; and come out of it all alive. Nothing I experience could be so horrific. Nothing I encounter could be so painful.

I'm grateful for the life God has given me. Despite its pitfalls, moments of anguish, and times that I feel angry, hurt, or afflicted, it's nothing. If I'm going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, I should count all things for joy, because the battle is already won. Christ has defeated death, and has risen victoriously. As Paul says to the church at Corinth, "Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" And so I'm blessed, because I followed in the footsteps of Jesus for a week - and in the midst of preparing multiple sermons, crazy family schedules, weather, teaching, writing music, and more - God through Jesus Christ has won this life for me.