Down the Via Dolorosa

Last Wednesday, as part of a class assignment for a course I am taking, we participated in a time of meditation around the “Stations of the Cross.”  This ancient worship practice surrounds viewing artistic pieces that depict 14 places of significance on Jesus’ road to Calvary (the Via Dolorosa—the Way of Suffering). 
The particular Stations I was viewing are displayed in the Tyndale Chapel in Toronto.  The artistic pieces are sculptures created by Donald de Lue.  





It was at Station number three that my heart and spirit were cemented.  The Station—called ‘Jesus Falls for the First Time’—depicts as noted, Jesus falling.  There are three others in the sculpture.  A Roman solider with a whip driving Jesus back onto his feet—and two others.  Lue, known for his ability sculpting hands and feet had depicted these two as follows.  One man, in the top corner—had his hand held out flat as if to say ‘stop!’ The woman is reaching towards the solider who had his hand raised to whip Jesus.  She looks as though she is reaching out to stop the soldiers.
As I sat and mediated on the scene before me I became the man in the top concern and eventually— the woman.  I want to stop the beating.  I want to stop the torture. I want to stop this thing. 
I spend my life trying to elevate pain.  I don’t like pain—and do not like to see people in pain.  So, I pray, help, serve, work to remove pain from people’s lives, home, marriage, relationships, etc. I pray for healing from physical, emotion, and mental pain.  I’m quite sure there is no pain in heaven—so I want that little piece of heaven now—painlessness. 
But, as I meditated more and more on the scene I began to hear and realize—stopping the pain would have stopped the work that Father allowed.  It was as if the Spirit were saying to me the following.
If you welcome pain you welcome my cross.  No cross—no glory. 
“Help me Lord to welcome pain—because of the joy awaiting Jesus on the other side of the cross—is the joy that awaits us as well.  Help me Lord to allow others I am working the faith, space, and time, to go through the lessons of pain.  I want to stop pain—for others—but sometimes pain must be allowed to do its work.”  

Godly pain always works—because Godly pain is always redemptive.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning to hate your sin

Image
   John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.   Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin.  Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages.  The wage of sin is death.  Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc.  It is a killer.  It is a wound-er.  It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin.  Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried about your sin. And keep repenting, keeping running into the arms of grace and the arm
Read more

Meditation

Image
Meditation I realize as we move on with this series that there are two things that need some clarification.  We already looked at the idea of silence and quietness—this week we will look at meditation.  Let’s begin by giving you the descriptions of the differences between these two disciplines.  Although from an outsider’s position there may be little or subtle differences, I want to help you process the vast difference between these—-and the immense benefit from both of these disciplines: Silence/ Quietness: Here the idea is shutting out your active mind —leaving lots of space for two things.  First, space to give your mind a rest, relaxing your mind.  It is a stopping of your mind from racing around solving all the problems of the world.  Second, giving space to hear from God! It is laying aside your agenda.  It is putting aside the debris, hurriedness, and hectic pace to relax in God’s presence.  Often music can help you with this.  Using the “Jesus praye
Read more

God is after you! And... for a different reason than you think!

Have you ever been pursued by a suitor—a lover—someone who is very interested in you? Was it pleasant to be liked?  Was it pleasant to be wanted?  Well, yeah—for sure.  Who doesn’t want to be loved? Who doesn’t want to be sought after?  Who doesn’t want to be appreciated? I do!  I am sure you do too! Did you know that is actually the message of Christmas—and the actual ‘story’ of the Bible?  It’s a story about God pursuing humanity. Too often when we think of God, or church, or the Bible—we think of behaving ourselves enough to get God’s attention.  Or, we think of trying hard to impress God—so that God would appreciate the hard work we are doing down here and give us His nod. Well, actually that is not true.  That is not the message of the Bible—nor the core message of Christmas.  It is actually the total opposite.  The core message of Christmas is not our chasing God—it is God chasing us! God is so in love with us—and wants so much for us to be with Him—and wa
Read more