“In the darkest night of our soul, we have something to hold on to that Job
never knew. We know Christ crucified. Christians have learned that when there
seems to be no other evidence of God’s love, they cannot escape the cross.”
—
D.A. Carson
REMANDED in the state of perplexed
confusion – a sort of rallying numbness, and a pain poignantly unknown and palpably
indescribable – we wonder quite how life could be dissolved into this:
a graceless wasteland of the soul pinging without purpose, residing in an
abiding anxiousness.
The Journey Inward
Having traipsed that tremulous track into
the inglorious unknown of suffering – that contorted dark night – we knew a
certain gathering that occurred within ourselves; but only, as it happened, after
we were released from that period of
pain.
We came to know this as the journey inward,
knowing now that that journey inward was necessary before a new living and
vibrant life identity could be explored or even established. It was the journey
inward that gave us the answers we needed to stride afresh into a confident new
day.
The Journey Outward
A confident new day is seasoned in an
acceptance of things as they are; as they have become; as they will be from now
on.
The journey outward is faith, but it is a
beautiful adventure of the spirit involved with captivating vivacity with the
Spirit of the living God.
The journey outward was anointed by the
ministry of the cross; God’s love through Christ our Lord that is now eternally
expressed and purposed and meaningful in the very mode of suffering.
That Ministry of Christ’s
Love Expressed in the Cross
Heaven bound we eternally were – as we
gather around the knowledge of Christ’s cross as an anthem for God’s love in a
symphony of praise to God on High.
This cross speaks to us not only about his
suffering, but about ours as well. It speaks to us about love and hope and
grace; the sacrifice of love that is a dear treasure to cling to in the darkest
minute and day. This cross is a spectacle, eternally portrayed, and a light to
the world beckoning in the darkest part; the darkest part of life. This cross
is excellence in the confusion; an answer in the mystery; a blessed release
from considered condemnation. It is everything it ever could be, even in the
unacceptability of suffering. It is nothing of the hopelessness that Job knew
in his despairing with his three ‘friends’. The cross is something where previously there really was nothing.
The ministry of the cross is foreboding in
the sense of anything the world could send our way. But it only works as we
reflect upon Christ’s blood-spilt and bodily-torn glory.
We must keep the cross ever before us. To
be reminded of God’s empathy in the midst of our own suffering. To know the
price God was willing without compromise to pay. To wallow as we will before
him who redeems us even in his own suffering.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.
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