Lent 2020 day 36

’We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.’ (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

Gideon Heugh writes:

“Scripture tells us that our faith can move mountains. So what do we do when the mountains do not move? What do we do when healing doesn’t come? When the disaster is not averted? When people we’ve spent our lives praying for never find God?

What do we do when a virus turns the whole world upside down?

The brokenness of life cannot be ignored. And God didn’t ignore it – he became part of it. Jesus knew all about grief and pain: he was rejected by his home community, betrayed by one of his friends, and faced an unimaginably terrifying death. He prayed for God to take that suffering away from him.

Yet he also accepted it. He never deflected his pain onto other people or wallowed in victimhood. In the midst of his greatest pain, he reached out to the criminal being crucified next to him (Luke 23:40-43). How could he do this? Because he knew that after brokenness comes resurrection.

There will be mountains in our lives that do not move. But we can take heart from the fact that, one day, out of the pain, something brand new may come to life.

Dear God,
Give us the strength to deal with brokenness in a healthy way; give us the patience to hold fast while we wait for moments of resurrection. Help us to not return the pain that we are dealt, but transform us into instruments of greater love. Amen.”