Reflections

“…what I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned that I will do.”  Isaiah 46:11

 Today is the beginning of Holy Week.  This is my favorite time of the year.  What’s not to love?  It’s the beginning of beautiful spring weather, new dresses, and the best part:  it marks the beginning of the celebration of Christ’s fulfillment of prophecy; His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. 

Oh, my precious Jesus.  I am so thankful that you died on the cross for my sins so that You could not only dwell with me, but You could dwell within me.  While I don’t understand the intricacies of how this is possible, I stand amazed that You would even want to be in my presence. 

Last year Maundy Thursday was new to me.  This year, I’ve felt compelled to dig into the days that led up to it.  So, I started studying the significance of Palm Sunday. 

Our focus as a church is usually Easter Sunday, Good Friday and, for some, Maundy Thursday.  I’m curious as to what led up to those days.   What did Christ experience when he began to journey toward Jerusalem?  Being fully God, He was very much aware of the agonizing death that lay before Him, but because He was fully man, He would experience stress, fear, anxiety, and pain.  How did He reconciled the conflicting emotions?

I wonder if, in His humanness, He thought, “How did I get here? What am I doing?”  I’ve had those very feelings when going into a dangerous or perceivedly dreadful situation.  I have looked up to the Heavens and said, “LORD, how in the world did I get here?”  But nothing that I have experienced could help me imagine what those last five days of Jesus’ human life were like. 

Imagine yourself as Christ on that journey to Jerusalem.  Imagine knowing your whole life that you would have to sacrifice yourself.  Imagine, as the years go by, knowing that you were getting closer and closer to that end (or beginning).  Maybe, because He knew what lay ahead, He looked forward to being home again and spending time with His Dad. Reunited at last!  Maybe, because He was fully man, He dreaded the pain, the suffering, the mocking, the humiliation, the loneliness, and the guilt of having all the weight of the sins of the world on His shoulders.  He knew exactly what lay before Him but yet, he loved me (and you) so much that to spend eternity with us, He would choose to endure it.  He thought I was worth it.  He thinks you are worth it. 

Can you see it?  Can you picture it in your mind’s eye?

Read Mark 11:1-11 

Why did Jesus instruct the two disciples to go into the town and get the donkey?  Jesus could’ve done it Himself, right?  When you look at the passage, as usual, God is the God of details and tells them specifically what is going to happen.  He told them to go into the town and predicted 1)  they would find a colt tied just inside the city gate (v.2) and 2) the townspeople would question what they were doing (v.3).  He even told them exactly what to say when they were questioned.

We find out a few verses later that it happened exactly the way Jesus said it would.  I have to wonder if perhaps that is why it’s included.  I’m sure there are other reasons that I haven’t discovered yet, but maybe Jesus told them to do this in order to, once again, provide the disciples with evidence that what He says about the future is going to happen.  Nothing can thwart it.   Nothing!  He knew that a few hours later he would tell them about what was going to happen to Him on the cross and the days that followed.  He knew they would need this experience as reassurance when he was gone that He really did know what He was talking about.  They could believe His words to be true because He had proved it in the past.

How patient God is with us when we don’t understand the first, second or third time He tells us something, and how slow we are to believe when He does reveal something.  Believe Him and trust Him when He says, “…what I have said that I will bring about; what I have planned that I will do.” Isaiah 46:11.

OK.  Y’all are gonna think I’m nuts, but let’s be honest, that wouldn’t be anything new.  Please don’t think that I am weird-er than you already think I am, but I just got the best e-mail.  This e-mail made my soul rejoice!  Seriously.   An I-want-to-do-a-happy-dance rejoicing. 

What was this mysterious e-mail and who sent it?  This is the part where y’all will think that I am weird.  It was from Robyn and it was about Holy Week 2011. 

Yes, Peeps, that is right, an email about Holy Week made me want to do a happy dance.  You see, I get excited about Holy Week the way children get excited about Christmas.  And I am not exaggerating. 

Over the last few years, I have been enormously blessed beyond words that my dear, sweet friend, Robyn loves the Easter season as much as I do, and it’s become quite a tradition for us to plan out our Holy Week by service hopping.  We go all out.  I’m talking Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday services (plural – meaning more than one), and a Saturday viewing of the Passion of the Christ (Robyn sits this one out, but it is a tradition for me to weep uncontrollably as the cruxifiction unfolds).  All these services culminate in an Easter blow-out celebration at church where my heart is full and my soul is glad. 

Last year, our bible study girls came along with us as we service hopped the week away.   As we were planning the activities last year, Robyn threw out, unbeknownst to her, a challenge when she said that the most wonderful Easter she could remember was a time when her pastor wrote a day-by-day devotion for Holy Week.  Now, I’m no pastor, but I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than writing down my reflections as the week progressed.  Over the course of holy week, I sent out an e-mail devotion.  This year, I’ll share those same reflections on the blog starting on Palm Sunday. 

My prayer is that God will use these reflections to show you His unimaginable love for you and that you might catch a glimpse of His Glory!

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”  – Isaiah 61:10

Sometimes I forget that the people from the Bible actually lived. Movies and television have warped my mind to think of things fictitiously first. That default mentality crosses over into my bible reading where I consciously and intentionally have to remind myself of one truth: these were real people experiencing a real God.

These are not characters on a screen.  They were flesh and blood; bone and breathe. I forget sometimes that their feet hurt from walking and their bellies sometimes gurgled. I forget that they got colds or that they sometimes woke up on the wrong side of the pallet.

They put their tunics on every morning one sleeve at a time.
They argued with their spouses and yelled at their children.
They experienced fear and discouragement.
They even had ugly-girl laughs.

Not only do I forget that they were real people, but sometimes I forget that the God to whom they spoke is the same God whom we speak with today.

Wait.
Stop.
Don’t let that sentence slip haphazardly from your mind.  Let it pierce your soul.

When you pray…you are standing before the same God that Moses stood before in the Tabernacle.
When you sing…you are praising the same God that David praised with his harp.
When you cry out…you are crying out to the same God that Jesus cried out to on the cross.

How can we live our lives knowing that simple truth and not be changed forever?

Recently, a dear friend recounted a story from her work.  She observed, much to her discomfort, a lady correcting a man in her office.  The lady was not being rude or unprofessional; she was simply teaching an employee how to do his job with excellence. 

My indescribably compassionate friend, felt uncomfortable as she watched the scene unfold before her.  So, she stepped into the conversation in an attempt to alleviate the tension and discomfort.

The lady very politely looked at my friend, smiled and said something to the effect of, “Sit down.  I wasn’t talking to you.  I need to do this because he needs to learn.”

All of a sudden, I became very aware of how – in our limited understanding – we step in to “help” someone when God is trying to teach them a lesson.   

It is human nature to step in when someone is uncomfortable, embarrassed or hurting.  But sometimes that is not our role. 

At times, God’s role for us is to simply love them through whatever situation they are in; lead them to Him to find the answer; and listen as they work through the situation.

Yes.  Sometimes God calls us to step in and help, but before we jump in to save the day, let us make sure that God is not going to smile at us and say, “Sit down, Child.  I am not talking to you.  This is something she needs to learn.”

“For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! – Isaiah 64:4

I like to wonder through the Bible.  Not wander.  Wonder.  

I wonder if Eve thought the apple from the tree of knowledge tasted good.  Did it taste like chocolate?  Because I would be seriously disappointed if I gave up my life and doomed humanity to eternal hell if it tasted like the apples we have now.   What a bummer. 

I wonder if Noah got tired of cleaning up after the animals, or if Sarai ever thought she needed to check Abram into the Wack Shack because he kept talking about this son they were going to have…when they were ninety!

I really started to wonder why David did not kill Saul when he had the chance.  David had a chance to kill him not once, but twice! 

In 1 Samuel 24, we pick up at David’s second chance to kill Saul.  He and his friend, Abishai, sneak into Saul’s camp.  They tiptoe past 3,000 armed men and stand beside Saul while he is fast sleep.  A spear sits beside Saul’s head.  Just one strike of that spear and David could ascend to his rightful place on the throne. 

When David had the opportunity to take matters into His own hands, he didn’t.   As he stood among 3,000 men who could have killed him in a split second — and without a moment’s pause — David did the unfathomable.

David chose instead to make an impression that Saul would carry with him for the rest of his life:  He waited on God’s timing.  He chose God’s way and God’s plan.  David trusted God to fight his battles for him, and he respected God’s decision to keep Saul as king.

I wonder if Saul thought about how close he came to death. 
I wonder if he ever slept in peace again. 
I wonder what he thought of his “big” army when he realized how close David came to taking his life. 
I wonder.
I wonder if I was in the same position if I would take the high road.
I wonder if I would wait on God.
I wonder if I would resist the temptation to take what was mine in my timing, and instead allow God to gift it to me personally, in His timing.
I wonder.