After a fairly bad week pain-wise, it was a struggle getting changed after a shower today. Each time I move or try to bend the pain causes me to growl: I’m a bit self conscious of it, and normally try to suppress it – really my wife shouldn’t have to hear it! But with certain movements it’s involuntary.
Today, I must have had a fleeting thought…”I can’t even get dressed without a fight”. But immediately a sequence of balancing thoughts flashed through my brain: “wow I can still dress myself!”
- I know people missing limbs: they get phantom pains in the missing limb. #CrazyFrustrating
- I know people undergoing chemo and radiation therapy. #sick^2
- I know people who have severe disabilities and terminal sickness. #noendinsight
- I know people who are lonely, depressed and suicidal. #heavy
- I know people who are alone. #😞
- I know people tormented with all kinds of internal ailments, hurts and memories. #noescape
- I know people who are battling all kinds of hidden addictions… #helpme
The list goes on, and that is just drawing from my limited interactions with people. Around the world people are struggling with *so much*:
Murdered relatives, dying parents, abducted children, starving orphans, displaced communities…
While the list is endless of people who are going through / trying to deal with far worse than I, there is something that always humbles me completely…
I think of a man tortured in every way imaginable: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
- This man knew it was coming, but didn’t run away.
- He didn’t deserve it, but didn’t defend Himself.
- His own family & friends abandoned Him, but He didn’t complain.
- His own countrymen falsely accused Him, still He didn’t blame them.
- The physical beating left Him bleeding and nearly skinless. In agony, He had to lift Himself on the nails through His hands just to breath, but He didn’t give up.
- He stayed there, His open wounds rubbing on the splintered wood, but it wasn’t in vain…
It wasn’t a political cause or statement. It was something planned long ago, by the loving Creator, for those He loves, those like you…and like me!
No matter what pain you are in, no matter how much you owe, no matter what you are missing or what is weighing you down, you have *so much* to be thankful for. Seriously. His name is Jesus.
#thankYouJesus #thanksgiving
Here is something written about this Man – God thousands of years ago. Still relevant, deeply revelatory, comforting and inspiring even now. Just think, this is the Man – God that Christmas is meant to be a celebration of: remember, He is coming back!
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him
the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
Isaiah 53:3-10 (NLT)