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This is a special week for most followers of Christ. It is piviotal. Here are some words worth remembering from Michael Card…..
The Place of Crushing
Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed
that if possible the hour might pass from him.
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
|| Mark 14: 35-36 || NLT ||
Gethsemane literally means “place of crushing,” a place where olives were crushed for their oil. That name took on an infinitely deeper meaning when Jesus knelt down there to pray that night in the garden.
A man knelt there, a man of unspeakable courage and obedience. Jesus looked the Father in the face with mature, though anguished, honesty and said, “If there is any way for this cup to pass, let it be so!” Yet a child also knelt down there to pray. “Abba, anything is possible for you!” Jesus’ words sound like a child’s cry to his father for help, not a theological statement about an all-powerful Universal Being.
Jesus cried out, “Abba.” Never let anyone clothe that word in theological sophistication. It is not a sophisticated word. It is baby talk! Papa, Daddy, Abba – they are all the same thing: the first stutterings of an infant, not to be categorized in some theological structure, but to be cried out from the heart of a child, a heart of faith.
PRAY: Bring the deepest cries of your heart to your Abba, your heavenly Father. Do not be ashamed of your feelings before him.
After reading those thoughts from Michael Card I ran into these thoughts from the Nouwen Society. I see a connection. Many times when we enter a season of crushing or when someone we love does we tend to follow the example of the disciples.
Mark 14:50 Then everyone deserted him and fled.
A season of crushing is something dreadful to watch. You feel helpless. Nouwen reminds us of the value of standing by those we love and those we can relate to during the crushing seasons.
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen)
Not Breaking the Bruised Reeds
Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: “Well, I don’t have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one.” Often we also treat people this way. We say: “Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business…we’d better not take the risk of working with them.” When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.
April’s suggested cd for this week :
Michael Card – Joy in the Journey: 10 Years of Greatest Hits
By Michael Card
Release date: 22 February, 1994 |
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