Jesus knew the limitations of His disciples. He realized they could not alleviate His pain, but He had hoped that they might, at the very least, keep pace with Him that final night. They did not know the future He was facing or the agony He would endure, but they could be present in His affliction. In those moments of anguish, in the time and space where Jesus set His face like flint toward the tasks at hand, He was simply wanting a witness for His pain.
Category: Devotions
More than a decade ago, I had gone to the grocery store with my mom picking up a few things. It was the week between Christmas and New Year’s and she was on the hunt for pumpernickel bread and pickled herring. I must have blanched when she flagged down an employee and made her request because once she found her wares, she turned to me and indicted: “Don’t you eat picked herring and pumpernickel on New Year’s? It’s good luck.”
It’s been said that life has two halves. The first half is all busyness: learning, growing, achieving, collecting, producing, consuming. But the second half is markedly slower: it is the sacred space where one finally makes peace with stillness.
Falling in love with Jesus has been the most transformative endeavor of my life: more than learning to read or write or setting foot in another country or even getting married. Loving Jesus has sent me on a journey of healing and wholeness and love for others that could not have happened by any other means.
Even though Cain and and his brother became full-grown men with careers and responsibilities, Cain still interacted with the world and God as an emotional toddler. He threw tantrums, he was selfish, accusatory and violent.
As we age, our tents start to show signs of depreciation. But old age and even death is not the end of our story: one day soon, we’ll trade in these canvas coverings for eternal dwellings: homes of brick and mortar.
God is and was and always has been immutable: unchanging and perfect in His static and exemplary state.
So many of our frustrations with others stem from our inability to sit alone in a room with God. Slowing ourselves to His pace will inevitably sort out the vexations that plague us.
Cain did not accept personal responsibility for his shortcomings. Instead of acknowledging his sin or his less-than-best, he blamed his brother for offering something better.
Transformative conversations with God pave the way for transformative conversations with others.