scars

After this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. (John 20:20) 

Every scar has a story.  So it’s not the scar itself that holds the healing power, but the story behind it.  The problem is that for many of us we carry the scar but have not completed the story.  We’re just stuck in the pain.  We haven’t been good stewards of our wounds.  For until there is healing, there is no real value in the scar.  It has no healing quality to it.  So we must be good stewards of our pain.  We must let God do his work in us through it.  We must begin to understand the story behind our wounds and our scars, or they will never be of value to anyone, including ourselves.

Touch me and heal me, Lord Jesus.  Bring me to life and raise me from the dead.  Help me show others how you have raised me, healed me, and made me whole.  Make my risen wounds a source of life and hope and healing to others.

they didn't realize

“Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.” (John 21:4)

Apparently, it was difficult to recognize the risen Christ, just ask Peter and John, or Mary, or the travelers on the road to Emmaus.  I wonder why that was.  Was it something about him or something about them that kept the realization from happening?  Or maybe it was just the situation.  Maybe it was the early morning sunlight, or their preoccupation with trying to haul in a catch of fish, or their frustration with not being able to do so.  Maybe it was the grief and sadness and confusion of having lost their dear friend and teacher and leader.  After all, Mary came to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus, and what she found was a Jesus more alive than he had ever been.  That would have been a surprise to anyone. 

The real question is not about them but about me.  How many times in my life have I failed to realize it was Jesus?  After all, he has been there all along, but I have failed to recognize it.  And where am I currently failing to recognize that it is Jesus?  Where and how is he standing on the shore of my life, just waiting for me to finally realize that it is him?

Give me eyes to see you, Lord Jesus, and a heart to recognize you in the midst of the events and interactions and conversations of my day.

the one who stayed (good friday)

“The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. (John 19:35)

O John, why did you stay?  Why did you stay to the bitter end?  Why did you stay until his dying breath, when all the others had fled?  Was it because of love?  Was it because you knew that love is stronger than fear?  Was it because you knew that perfect love casts out fear?

Teach me how to stay as well.  Teach me how to believe in love.  Teach me how to dwell in the house of love rather than the house of fear.  Teach me to look deeply into the eyes of Love and glean all that there is to glean from its delicious and delightful fruit.  Teach me to stand when I’m tempted to run away, teach me to stop when I am always on the go, teach me to listen when I am constantly speaking, and teach me to believe that perfect love always has ahold of me even when I am filled with fear and doubt.  Only then will I know what you know.  Only then will I know that I, too, am the disciple whom Jesus loved.

“Fix your eyes on the Crucified and nothing else will be of much importance to you.  If his Majesty revealed his love to us by doing and suffering such amazing things, how can you expect to please him by words alone.” ~St. Teresa of Avila

a prayer for palm sunday

Loving God, on this day we remember that going up to Jerusalem cost Jesus his very life.  So we come before you, conscious of the way religious words and holy phrases can slip so easily from our lazy lips and our hardened hearts.  What do we really know of your mountainous truth, your rock-hard integrity, the depth of your suffering for love of us all?  Forgive us for the shallowness of our faith and the timidity of our following: forgive us for the ready excuses we make for going our own way and claiming it as yours.

Turn us round again, we pray, by your Holy Spirit, active within us and among us.  Show us how to be open again to your faithfulness and to your freedom, that we may live new lives and be again bearers of the seeds of the realm of Jesus.

—Going up to Jerusalem by John Harvey

Next book in the series (Eastertide)

 

If you are looking for a companion for the season of Eastertide, Alive: Encountering the Risen Jesus is available on Amazon.

where is your hope?

“O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” (Ps. 131:3) Where is your hope?  Who, or what, do you really put your hope in?  And how can you tell if your hope is really in the Lord?  If you look at your life, it will give you a pretty good idea.  Your actions will always show you where your hope really lies. 

Waiting for the Lord is one surefire way to tell.  Waiting for the Lord shows us where our hope really lies.  If we are willing and able to wait for the Lord, it shows that our hope is really in him, and if we are always charging ahead, it shows that our hope is really in ourselves. 

What does it look like to put your hope in the Lord these days?

wait in hope

“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Rom. 8:25) 

There is an intimate connection between hoping and waiting.  Until we fully recognize and acknowledge that the things we most deeply long for—like healing, wholeness, freedom, and peace—cannot be accomplished by our own power, gifts, and efforts, we will always be frustrated.  When we long for things that only God can bring about, our only option is to wait in hope and trust that God’s heart is good, and he will take care of us.  Unfortunately, we are not very good at waiting patiently, which means that, in most cases, our hope is in ourselves rather than in our God.  Thus, we constantly try to manufacture and produce, to fix and manipulate, rather than wait patiently.

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” (Psalm 33:20-22)