Choosing Life

Once space is made in life's busyness and once Jesus has set up a small satellite office there, He begins to reach out to others in His typical fashion. At first, the tasks are simple and small, but later they become much bigger, sometimes taking over completely. That can be scary, but it also can be thrilling. Either way, the choices boil down to participate or opt out.

As has been pointed out before, Lenten practices are usually adopted with only a vague notion of the effort and consequences entailed. Wishing to know more about the Bible, for instance, does not imagine that the Scriptures might actually come alive and challenge in a transformative way. And entering into a daily prayer routine does not suppose that it will powerfully redirect life in any way. But believers are aware that some change may occur, however indefinite the bounds of that change may be. And if they do, most believers would welcome them, at least at first.

For the Lord, in His mercy, is often gentle in His first nudging. It may be a curiosity, or a nagging desire to do something concrete, or a conviction that some small change will lead to growth. Whatever the leading, things unnoticed before become visible now and later, obvious. Subtle cues once ignored lead to openness, then outright questioning. Subjects avoided in the past are no longer taboo and are eventually faced head on. In this progression, the comfort of complacency is traded for awareness and then traded again for engagement. That much is allowed for, even desired, in the believers initial steps.

There is more, though, that is encountered. For in addition to the increasing involvement, there is matching personal investment that draws us into the problems we encounter. Listening to another's grief, we begin to grieve ourselves. Facing the truth of injustice to another, we feel anger. And touching someone else's faith struggles, our faith becomes similarly challenged. In short, we become better at feeling empathy. But this is not what we imagined, it hurts and it wakens fears we thought had been put to rest. Did anyone bother to warn that closeness to God can be painful?

Yes, they did. Was it not clear that Lent and the practices taken on are to remind us of the suffering of Christ? Isn't God completely aware of the difference between what is and what could be? Is it that hard to believe that Good Friday is not about physical death, as utterly unbearable as that was, but is more about spiritual death, which is infinitely more horrible? The truth of Holy Week is that as Christ wept for Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), it was actually our sins that He grieved over. And His death on the cross didn't just make our death unimportant, it made our life with God possible. And while that absolutely sounds like good news, it means we begin to feel both good and bad, joy and suffering.

The beauty is that once we have tasted this fuller life of ups and downs, we realize that it was always available, but we refused to join in. And though the option to quit is always given us, it really is no option at all. There is but one life that God offers and even if it is filled with joy and pain, ecstasy and suffering, to refuse is to deny community and to reject growth, it is to choose death.

May you see life with God for the excitement, thrills and challenges He intends.