Wednesday’s Word-Edition 81
March 21, 2012 | My Jottings
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the Cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away.
And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.”
John Stott
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Amen.
….and amen… 🙂
It is when you are close to death that you get to know Him even better. It is also during that time when, if you pray for others that you feel His being there with you. A closeness that I never felt before. One time I was in a hospital and had a medical problem, and in my crying out to Him – his reaction was to have someone else in a similar situation but worse, be put in the room in the bed next to mine. I instantly knew He was blessing me, as I relaized that I needed to take my eyes off of me and on to the one who just came into my room. I have found that if I take my eyes off of myself and seek His comfort for others I am blessed beyond words. It is in those times that He shows Himself even more to me. He is not only my life, he is my everything. I just had to get to the point that I was totally in His hands to realize that simple fact.
Thank you Lar. I love what you wrote…
Pain in life has a purpose. It can be a good thing.
Pain, when not resisted, always purifies and enlightens.
Pain that is resisted becomes suffering. …
Pain is a fact of life; misery is a state of mind.
Paul Coutinho, SJ, Just as You Are, 64
Very beautiful and profound, Roberta….thank you so much for sharing this.