Good Friday 2024

 

We were bought with a price…we are not our own

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He received 39 stripes because 40 was known to kill a man. They wanted him alive. They held handfuls of his beard, and hair and pulled it out by the roots. They wanted him alive. They kicked, punched, and spit on him for hours. Until there wasn't a single spot on his body not covered in blood. They wanted him alive.

 

They shoved a crown of thorns down on his head so harshly it stuck in his skin. They wanted him alive. After hours of being beaten, mocked, whipped, flogged, and tortured they made him walk with a cross. They made him carry it. A rough piece of wood with splinters digging into fresh wounds. They wanted him alive.

 

They wanted him to feel every ounce of pain they could bring. He had to feel it in order to heal us. Crucifixion was historically one of the cruelest most tortured deaths a human could face. Hours upon hours of torture. Torture most of us can not mentally think of because the cruelty isn't normal. It isn't something our minds can comprehend. We celebrate Easter with pastel colors, happy children hunting eggs, and chocolate. Truth is there was absolutely nothing happy about the day Jesus died. It was cruel, bloody, and nasty.

 

He could have stopped all of it. He could have called every angel in heaven to demolish every person standing and shouting "Crucify Him!" He didn't. He knew in order to have a Sunday you have to have a Friday. He knew in order to have joy you have to carry your cross. He felt everything that day. He felt how your heart broke wide open when you had to watch your baby die. He felt how heavy your life was when you were staring down the barrel of a gun wondering if the man you called husband was going to shoot you. He carried the weight of the burden you have felt since your spouse died and life just doesn't seem right since.

 

On that cross he held the rapist and murderers, the sinner and the saint. He leveled every playing field and said ALL of you are worth it. He knew he had to carry the cross. He never promised the cross you carry in this life would not be heavy. His wasn't. His promise is that Sunday is coming.

 

No matter how heavy Friday is. Financially, emotionally, mentally, or physically. Friday is heavy. That cross is weighing you down and you are about to crumble under its weight. His promise was simply this. He won't make you carry it alone. What kind of king would step down from his throne for this?

 

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God did. For you.

 

He did every bit of it for you and me. Oh yes it is heavy. So heavy sometimes you do not think you can take one more step. But look up, because Sunday is coming.

 

Author unknown

 

What Is Truth? – revisited

 

 

When Jesus was before Pilate, He said, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate answered Him with, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)

 

When looking for something to inspire a blog for today, I came across this prompt on one of the many sites I troll: List the top 10 things you know to be absolutely true.

 

I immediately thought of the Bible passage. What IS truth? Even more, what is ABSOLUTE truth? Heavy question. There are a lot of things I’m not absolutely sure about, let alone believe to be true. But here’s what I came up with.

 

1. I am a child of God. Loved, redeemed, bought-and-paid-for.

 

2. I will be with Christ one day, as He has promised.

 

That’s only two things, but those are pretty important to me. There are many more that I HOPE to be true, that I WISH to be true, but I KNOW ABSOLUTELY that the above 2 are true.

 

Some say “What about Death and Taxes?” But not everyone pays taxes. And when Christ returns, those that are still living will not taste death, so that’s not even a sure thing. (For most of us, it is, I know)

 

So that’s MY truth.

 

What’s yours?

 

Where Is My Mind? (I just had it a minute ago…)

 

There is a Pixies song, “Where Is My Mind?” Cool song. Go find it on Youtube. The main phrase that is repeated is:

 

“Your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself, where is my mind?”

 

SO many times in my youth, and even somewhat into adulthood, I feared what was IN my mind, not just WHERE it was. It was usually right there with me, but filled with all manner of tangled darkness and chaos. I could never escape it. And I was aware of this darkness from a very early age, like 3 or 4. I was aware of my own mentality, and it frightened me because I had no understanding of why I felt the way I did. I just knew something was wrong and that it was probably me that was wrong. It was my mind and thoughts that were wrong, although I didn’t have the words for what it was or how to express it.

 

I’d see other children at play and they seemed perfectly happy with life. They enjoyed themselves. I’d wonder what that would feel like. How to ignore what was going on in my mind and just live in the moment and enjoy life. Why couldn’t I be like that? I always thought of these other children as being ‘normal’ and I was not. And I didn’t have the words at my disposal to deal with it.

 

I have shared some of this with Sarah, since this is in her realm of knowledge. I recently read an article about CPTSD, with the “C” standing for Complex. It made so much sense for what I had felt as a child. When I mentioned it to Sarah, she said “Of course you had CPTSD. I knew that already.”

 

And of course there are plenty of episodes that I can remember as happy ones. I just tend to hang on to the negative ones. And I know that is something I have to work on constantly. I have a lot of support from family and friends, and most importantly, from my faith in Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine going through some of this stuff we call life without that support.

 

Now, back to where my mind went…it does tend to wander off at times…but as long as I don’t put the car keys in the freezer or cat food in my bowl instead of Cheerios I think I doing OK.

 

Random Thought:

I’m not in denial, I’m just very selective about the reality I accept – Calvin and Hobbes