By His Wounds We are Healed

I can’t let this day pass without remembering. This day is painted in crimson and scarlet, the colors of forgiveness.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

-The Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53:3-5

Although my pain is unrelenting, it pales in comparison to the suffering of Christ. If only I would use my pain as an ever-present reminder of the price willingly paid for me. If only I would understand this truth, and let it sink in, to viscerally accept the love God has for me. No matter how awful the pain, it is a reminder of what true love is.

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Fathers broken heart
tears were filling heaven’s eyes
The day that true love died, the day that true love died
When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died, The day that true love died

-Phil Wickham, True Love

Love, Love, Love…

…and I’m not talking about the Beatles. I think it’s sad that we have so few words in the English language to communicate such a complex set of emotions. Love, love, love… is something that developed between me and my mom since just saying “love” didn’t seem to communicate the sincerity with which we felt it. I’ve noticed this has popped up a few other places, as if the word in triplicate means to say, “love, yes I mean love, I’m not messing with you, I really mean love.”

A couple years ago I started asking God to help me understand His heart, to see the world the way He sees it, and that my heart might ache for what His heart aches for.  In a strange way, my adventures with chronic pain have been a partial answer to this prayer. The experience you have when you hear words like pain, depression, loneliness, and disappointment is quite different depending on if you have felt those feelings. If you haven’t experienced these feelings, there’s a mental chain reaction: you intellectually connect concepts based on what you have learned about them. If you have experienced them though, there is a more visceral association made, even to the point of reliving that familiar feeling, which can produce a deep empathy.  This isn’t meant as a cut to sympathy, but it is an explanation of why I feel so strongly that we need to love others. I feel like I’m seeing with new eyes, like the world is coming into focus. I’m awakening to what’s going on around me, the struggles people go through emotionally, the poverty, the heart ache, and especially the elderly who are overlooked and treated as unimportant.

I’m not trying to guilt-trip anyone. I think we should apply what we know of the world to what we see. I pray that you and I can both see better than we do now, that we might hear the struggles of our neighbors, and let our hearts be receptive to the needs of others around the world. I know it can seem like such a huge task. I don’t think we’ll cure the planet and all the people in it of every ache, but with globalization we have the ability to both know what’s going on in the world, and make a difference. Just because the action of one person is small, does not mean it’s insignificant. So, as Christmas approaches, I would like to encourage you to look around and see how you can spread the love.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

-Jesus, John 15:12-13