The Shadow Of Death

September 16th,

  Nothing about Christ is limited but our understanding of Him.

"everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not my will but what you will..."  Jesus said this in his moment of pain, in his suffering he cried out to his father and asked,  "Dad, I will obey but must I go through this?"  This is not unfaithfulness, this is not abandonment, and in Christ's sake it is not even doubt. This is a man, as human as you and I going through an immense amount of pain and suffering simply wishing there was another way and if not then he was willing and obedient to go through whatever lied before him.   This is Christ. The messiah and Almighty, the King of Nations and sovereign God who cries out in his hour of suffering and literally says " My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death."  Christ allowed himself to be fully man so that he might feel man's pain and be one of us; even as he was simultaneously God.  The pain and sheer sorrow he felt literally brought him to his knees, sweating blood and consumed to the point of death.  We will face times of sorrow, perhaps not to such intensity as sweating blood but we know this to be true. There is no shortage of pain in this world. If Christ cries out to his father in pain how much more do we,  we who are helpless, meritless, and defeated need our savior? How long will we suffer at the knees of a god who loves us unconditionally?  Some of this is not uncommon to you and me. Tonight, as with many others have I been overcome to the point of death; I feel no strength to live, life seems but a dark void ripping meaning in half and spitting my efforts out in disgust.  Why this was I cannot place,  but this is not the important part, what matters now is what I do with this feeling when it is all but consumed me.  I went on a walk, I asked friends to pray for me and listen.  I told God how I felt, and asked him to take it away.  In this same way Christ went about the pain he was in;  He asked his friends to be with him, pray for him, and stay with him. Then, in desperate need to talk to his father and be momentarily alone he went off into the garden where he prayed, he told God how he felt and asked him to take it away..... but that's not all.  Notice how he says "Yet, which means even in this pain, it is not my will but yours."  This here is where we fail to face our struggles, we are willing to cry out but unwilling to let it hurt. We want Christ to be there for us and yet also be the magic word of make it all feel better.  Sometimes this will happen and your sorrow will be lifted but often there is more down the road, there is a lesson to come out or a fear we must express. Whatever it is it's not too big for Christ, or too complicated, or too dark, or too foreign.  He understands the point of ultimate suffering, he is with you through it all to the very end and will never abandon you. When you're in that valley and you cannot see a light know that Christ can and do the same and don't give up on him like he wont on you.