Nailed – A Holy Week Acrostic Poem

 

No sin left unforgiven

At the last day

If you but ask.

Let Him fill you with His grace . . .

Eternal life Him.

“Do you love me?” I do.

By Martha L Shaw ©3-26-2013

 

The Missing Hallelujah

 

It is Lent, a season in the liturgical Christian year in which we walk with Christ in the final days of His ministry in His human form.  It is a season of 40 days duration, not counting Sundays and as it closes we celebrate Easter.  During this time the eruptions of Hallelujah are laid aside as we fast and devote ourselves to other spiritual disciplines.

It has always seemed a sad, gray, lifeless time to me.  The hymns sung at church are “low” both in spirit and in note to this soprano, or so it has seemed.  I miss my shouts of hallelujah and the many joyful and lively hymns as we, it has always seemed, focus on “from dust thou art.”  It has always seemed to me that to focus on death, which has always appeared to me to be the theme of Lent, is just wrong.

Is not the Kingdom of God at hand?

Has Christ not already won for me Eternal Life?

Yes, those two things are true.  Why then lament and focus on not life but death?  As I walk my path with Jesus everyday and as I sometimes climb the mountain with Him, His joy is always within me even on those days I cannot feel my joy.  My faith tells me it is within me.  His peace and His joy are a gift and I own them but like other sorts of gifts . . . the forgotten sweater . . . what has been given to me sometimes slips from focus temporarily.  Am I in Lent being encouraged to look at death and not at life?

As I sat, knelt, and stood in church today for our Ash Wednesday Eucharist, I realized that I didn’t feel low.  There was no music, lively or low-key.  There were no excited shouts of acclamation, and the “h” word wasn’t spoken.  I, though, was not feeling low, gray, and down in spirit.  It seemed to me that rather than flooded with guilt at my human failures, and rather than missing the emotional high of a view from the mountaintop, I felt REALLY GOOD.  How is this possible?  What has changed in me?

I have recently, after a long time of searching, found a part-time job.  No, it’s not the full-time one my unpaid bills require, and no it’s not fancy and of a sort which magazine covers rave about.  It is, however, a new start and a part of the Lord’s plan for my life even if I cannot see how.  My heart and soul know this.  Today, my day off, though is not a day of wallowing in all the job is not.  It is not a day to waste thinking of “I should be working today.”  It is a day of focusing on other things which are also valuable to my life in Christ.  It is a day of more restful things as well.  It is a day in which my aching feet are rested and revitalized for days soon to be upon when I am again running about on hard cement floors for hours doing physical work with a smile even if my feet begin to hurt, and even if I burn my fingers taking out a hot baking sheet of cookies . . . today is a restful day.  Not a day for napping, but a day to refocus and recharge.  These things are as necessary and all the running around the kitchen and dining room at my job.  I will be better able to do what is to come later if I prepare now!

Ultimately, isn’t that what Lent can be said to be all about?  Is it not a time to reflect on my humanness and His love and mercy?  Is it not a time rest . . . carry the cross with Him, yes, but also to curl up at His feet and realize His amazing love as fully revealed to us as He, bloodied and beaten, carried a heavy cross on which He knew He’d be crucified?  Was He showing anger?  Was He calling upon Father God to “get me out of this mess” and going after those who did this to Him?  No, He did not.  As He bled for them and for us, He spoke love and forgiveness.  So, during this quieter time in the Liturgical year, in terms of shouts of hallelujah and singing lively music, I will rest from those things as I curl up with my Jesus and listen to Him.  I will learn how I shall find the strength to carry my cross.  I will learn how I am to love my enemies as He did.  I will learn what He has next for me to do to reflect His love on others.  It will be a different season from the last, but I will feel His love and I will learn to love Him even more.  Join me, won’t you?  Amen.

Sipping Tea With Jesus

Working a bit in the garden got me to thinking, as such tasks so often do.  Hands busy and mind, heart, and soul adrift . . . these are usually times spent with Jesus. 

Good Friday is close at hand and so I find myself wondering what those very close to Jesus were thinking or doing today.  He tried to tell His apostles what was going to happen, yet we know they didn’t understand.  Though the Bible doesn’t reveal it, I’m thinking He may also have tried to tell His friends in Bethany . . . Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, what was about to happen and if He did, I’m thinking they as well may have misunderstood . . . 

Jesus, as we know, was fully human and fully God and as such experienced some of what we do.  I’m sure it was difficult to tell His friends He was about to die.  He knew them well.  He likely knew they’d be upset, yet there was still much to do before His death and surely they’d need to be prepared for what came next . . . He said yes to Father God and yet these short couple of days before “it is finished” could not have been easy at all for Him. 

I expect, as was His custom, He likely made a visit to Bethany to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  Assuming they didn’t fully understand what was soon to come, I wonder what they were thinking . . .  knowing Jesus well, I”m sure they were concerned.  Surely, they’d have noticed a bit of something different about their friend . . . perhaps they were concerned as dear friends are when something “seems wrong.” 

Do you suppose they invited Him into the sunroom for a restful cup of tea? I’d really like to do that right now.  I believe I will.  I’m sure He’ll be there with me.

Heart Crossed

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

– Helen Keller –

In the Christian year we are now in Holy Week and Helen Keller got it right.  The most beautiful thing in the world is the amazing love of our Lord Jesus Christ for each one of us.  In this coming week as we make our final spiritual preparations for the celebration of Easter, let us slow down enough in our typical day-to-day living and find  some extra time to be with Jesus in our heart and focus solely on Him. 

The amazing love of Jesus Christ – Pass it on!

 

I Am Nothing

It is true, you know.  I am nothing. 

I was walking out of a church supper last night with a friend.  She is about my age.  Not too long ago she and her husband were happy, active, independent, and living a good Christian life . . . then they both got very sick, he passed away and she has been in and out of ICU ever since but even though she’s approached the gates of heaven many times, she is still here.  She walks slowly with a walker, she carries a heavy tank of oxygen with her everywhere she goes.  She is thin and weak and can hardly move, is often out of breath, has trouble eating, sleeping, speaking . . .

She never misses church as long as she’s not in ICU.  She dresses in her Sunday best, she smiles at anyone the Lord puts in her path, and she has uplifting words for them. 

Last night she admitted to me that she is not sure why God doesn’t take her.  I think He knows we need her.  She told me she’d read her devotional reading while wondering about her life and death and it made her consider that maybe He is using her to show people how through the Holy Spirit He can use us, all of us, even – to put it as my friend did “someone like me.”

I had a hard time not crying at her words.  How often do we, for our own reasons, feel like “someone like me.”  This is not an article about making you feel guilty about your own situation being easier than that of my friend.  You see, our own struggles do weigh us down and quite honestly it never really helps me much to be reminded that “a lot of people have it worse.”

The truth is, whether we think so or not we really are “nothing” without our Lord and as long as we think otherwise, He can’t use us as He desires to.    Some of us “get it” and some of us are at times caught up in our own opinion of ourselves and don’t realize how much we need Him.  I think, actually, we are all at various times caught up in both of those mindsets. 

Someone said something to me this morning that reminded me so much of my Savior’s love for me and my dependence on Him . . . and what an incredible gift it is.  She said “you are a blessing to me.”  At once it brought tears to my eyes.  Me?  A blessing?  I am nothing.  Ah, but that is the whole idea – alone I am nothing but in Him and with Him and through Him, I can be part of His body in this world and reflect Him on those around me.  That’s what He wants and it’s what I want.  He loves me.  He tells me so all the time.  He keeps finding new ways to tell me this.  Today, He used one of you.  I am blessed.  I am nothing.  It’s amazing!