Tuesday's Trust - Are We Victims... or Tools in the Hands of the Master?

Tuesday's Trust

Are We Victims...

or Tools in the Hands of the Master?

Jesus' sufferings

Jesus suffered throughout his earthly life. Jesus did not only suffer at (His) death or under Pontius Pilate (as the Apostles' Creed says). He suffered

• at His birth in a poor stable,
• when He was a refuge from Herod,
• in the misunderstandings of His family,
• when the disciples were unable to comprehend Him and His mission,
• in His homelessness and fatigue,
• from the incessant pushiness of the crowds and the constant critique of the religious leaders, and so forth. Similarly we diminish His sufferings on the cross when we limit them to the physical or even the spiritual.
• Imagine the emotional weight of bearing all our accusations and rejections, the sin of the whole world -- of being for our sake... made to be sin {He} who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Envision the temptations hurled along with the scorn and abuse of the bystanders; why not take again Your divine power and hurl a few lightning bolts at them?

We don't want to ponder the extent of Christ's afflictions because we don't want to bear them ourselves. We are like Peter rebuking Jesus for forecasting the fullness of His agony. Peter wanted a triumphant Messiah, not One calling him to follow Him into hardship.

...Oh, Jesus, don't let this happen to You -- because, if we follow You, we will be called to divest ourselves of comfort and warmth, to find ourselves in a cattle stall, a place of muck and cold, humility and poverty and persecution.

~Marva Dawn

Jesus wept over his best friend dying.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem not responding to Him ~ How I longed to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you were unwilling...

Was Jesus a Victim?

So, would Jesus be considered a victim? Nowadays we call people who go through such torment, persecution, grief, and ridicule, "victims."

Scripture says Jesus suffered the cross and the shame of the cross for the JOY that was set before Him...to be seated at the throne at the right-hand side of His Father. He suffered, not because He had to, but He chose to be obedient to His Father to complete God's will for us.

Can we suffer the desperate void left by her loss for the JOY of reuniting with her that is set before us?

Our son Nathan's view of his baby sister who was not only a sister, but a very best friend to him, is

"God knew the one thing I wanted the most for my little sister was for her to go to Heaven. And even though it may take a lifetime of (my) suffering (from) her not being here, I'll gladly accept it knowing she's in paradise, (awaiting) me to join her."

~Nathan Prince

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Is our weakness and suffering a tool in the Master's hands for a greater love for our child than we can imagine?

Is our debilitation actually a tool used for more spiritual empowerment in the hands of Creator God?

Is our weakness possibly a part of the "ground-wire" for God's earthly circuit to His resurrection power?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus informs us that it is only the poor in spirit, the meek and the mourners who will see the kingdom of God (and its King) break into their lives.

~John of Ruysbroek

Perhaps Jesus has a different set of scales or a different standard of weights by which He measures the weakness we carry around with us everyday in our child-loss grief. May He realign our values to fit with His so that our lives become His vessel for what is more important for eternity than for what is needed for our present happiness and comfort.

May we trust Him to use us in His ultimate eternal plan. And may we trust Him in the weakness of our grief's stupor ever to carry us...