I was at a meeting that felt like one of those scenes in “The Lion King” where the hyenas were surrounding the cub lion or one of those GeoWild episodes that depict a pack of coyotes slowly moving in for the kill.
But I also thought that I had some advocates that would “call off the dogs.” They did not. They sat there silently while falsities deadened my heart much in the same manner that animal packs finish the job.
In retrospect, God used that broken road to lead me in a direction more closely aligned to my calling. But "retrospects" seem to last forever!
Most of us go through some sort of betrayal or lack of support and it feels nightmarish at the time and lonely afterwards. It’s almost as if it separates us from God - though in our souls we know He hasn’t withdrawn and His love for us hasn’t changed one bit.
The cross comes into greater detail when abandonment pierces like an arrow. It’s only through this very specific type of suffering that we can truly relate to the loneliness of Jesus on Calvary.
However, it’s also through these circumstances that we understand redemption and the resurrection.
Michael Card’s “Known By The Scars” is a song that impacted me many years ago. It reminds us that Jesus will bear His scars in heaven. In fact, those marks will be a focal point for the thunderous worship of “The Lamb who was slain.”
We, too, may take some scars along with us. But they can serve to remind us that God’s perceived “silence,” and even the hush of those whom we were banking on, may very well become the booming voice of a resurrection in our lives.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Time offers a portal to heaven. When we have to wait - and particularly when the length of the wait is long - the portal seems absent. It’s during these times when we have to draw strength from the portal that never leaves: the cross. Whether it’s from our mind, an inspiring painting, a crucifix or some other imagery, find that cross and cling to it.
I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…I am with you always, even unto the end of the world…Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life…I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Philippians 3:10 NIV, Matthew 28:20 KJV, Psalm 143:8 NIV, Jeremiah 31:3 NIV