Confessions of an Errant Mind

We've been going through a lot in the last couple of months--a miscarriage, our son possibly having a major medical procedure, a house sale falling through due to a bad roof, and various financial pressures (such as $1K in car repairs). It's felt a little like Job, to be honest. Through it all, we've wondered whether this is some kind of "Turn back now" kind of sign. Last week, at a reunion of our college campus ministry, I had an epiphany of sorts, in the classic religious sense. I felt an overwhelming sense of God's compassion and affirmation. I also felt the Spirit saying (as much as one can ever be sure of such things) that the issue here was not us--whether or not we're on the right path. Rather, with things like the house sale, we were simply experiencing the suffering of our neighbors, many of whom would love to leave north Minneapolis, but are unable to for financial or other reasons. That is to say, God doesn't promise a quick rescue or solution, but I did feel a sense of solidarity--that God knows us and will provide what we need to make it through.

I ran across the following passage in an article in this month's Sojourners that I think summarizes this well:

Will Willimon has asked some good questions about this foolishness of the cross. What kind of sense does it make to worship a God who, instead of resuing us out of trouble, rescues us by entering into the trouble with us? A God who, instead of helping us to avoid pain, heals us from our pain by entering the depths of our pain with us? A God who, instead of fixing things for us, addresses them by becoming weak with us in our weakness?

But this is the foolishness of the cross. All of us know pain and grief and disappointment in our lives. Our human wisdom wants a God who will heal us and make us feel better. The foolishness of the cross is a God who enters into our pain and bears our pain with us. To the part of us that is human and perishing, this is incomprehensible and we wants something more. But to the part of us that is being saved, it is the very power of God.

And even more foolishly, this very same God expects us to do the same with each other: to enter into each other's pain, to bear each other's burdens and those of the world around us. To the world, that is an utterly foolish way to live, but to those who embrace the cross, who take up their cross and follow Jesus, and who are ready to lose their lives to save their lives, it is the only way to live. It is the power of God within us.