Day Twenty-Two

Day Twenty–Two // March 13 // Strength

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.” – Hermann Hesse –

It is natural to invite hope and joy and peace to accompany us on our journeys through life. We want them by our side, constant companions through all the churning, swirling vicissitudes of daily living. But what about the equally powerful, equally necessary companions of loss and sadness and pain?

There is a depth, an unspeakable gravity to these emotions. But there is, too, a darkness, an emptiness, a fearful somberness that keeps us back. We don’t want to know the agony of grief. We don’t want to endure the humiliation of rejection. We want to keep life simple. We want to keep it light and cheerful – even if that means we keep it shallow.

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We make this choice, though, at grave peril. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead,” the Apostle Paul wrote (Philippians 3:10-11). He was making the connection between crucifixion and resurrection. Resurrection we like… crucifixion, not so much. But there is not one without the other. If we are truly to be the joyful people of Easter, we must submit to the suffering of Good Friday’s pains.

And it requires extraordinary strength to ask them to attend our days. It requires strength and courage and an unyielding trust in the goodness of God to allow these darker emotions – sorrow and sadness – to teach us and to guide us. It requires an inordinate faith to invite them to our side – to invite them in, not as unannounced strangers we’re happy to see depart, but as friends and teachers and guides.

It is that holy tension, that sacred balance to which God calls us: to laugh with those who laugh, and to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), to be watchful and alert, to hold the brightness of today in one hand and the darkness of all our yesterdays in the other – knowing that God moves and works and heals in unexpected ways through His people, His Body, and those at His side: the Church.

WEEK FIVE:

The Feet of Christ

“Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so, she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’”

– Luke 10:38-42 –