Don’t tell me this title / theme does not catch your attention! Do you feel you have been ‘stuck’, for long enough, dealing with ‘troubles’ (of one sort or another) & that you could do with an ‘up-lift’? So, you may ask: how do I get ‘free’? One ‘social / spiritual’ option – to lighten one’s ‘yoke / burden’ – is encoded in the jingle: ‘let’s all “twist” again, as we did (child-like) last summer’: Through Him, With Him, In Him, Separation Transcended.
As we ‘look out’ (outside ourselves) & ‘look in’ (within ourselves) we seek to find ‘common ground’ for personal challenges. The most basic acknowledgement of our ‘commonality’ is set out in the prayer: ‘Lord have mercy on me, a miserable sinner’. And the ‘holy ground’ for our everyday lives is the place / space where ‘chronology’ (human time) & ‘kairos’ (God’s time) intercept each other.
Note: we have touched on the subject matter of this article in the ‘hand-out’ quotes ::: ‘Happy are those who recognize they are LOST & realize they are FOUND’ ::: ‘We joyfully discover where we are when our horizontal mode of life (social) & our vertical mode of life (spiritual) CROSS each other & are reconciled’: & in website articles: see “My Life is a mess” & “Re-build My House” (under ‘Practice’ button).
Ok: it’s, now, the opportune moment to present the complete title / theme –
Yes, that’s the CROSS i.e. the intersection of the YOU (horizontal / social) with GOD (vertical / spiritual). So, how do all these scenarios connect? Here’s the answer! ‘It was on the CROSS at Calvary that God in Christ dealt fully & finally with ‘SELF’, the nature from which all our sins flow’.
The purpose of the CROSS is to reconcile our human / divine ‘cross-purposes’. When we take our desires to the CROSS we are not denying them, but we are placing them into God’s eternal ‘PRO’VISION (Vision of Perfect Relational Order) where they are transformed into the ‘way of being’ our Heavenly Father had determined for them from the beginning.
The CROSS is the ‘focus point’ (the ‘cross hairs’) of God’s WILL – for all of us & for the whole world – because ‘through it’ He offers us the certitude of LOVE & NEW LIFE. What is at ‘PLAY’ (Perfect Love Answers Yes) here – if we have faith to believe in Jesus the Christ’s death & resurrection (i.e. God’s SOS Rescue) – is the gifting of MERCY (i.e. ‘the bridge that connects God & man’).
Human beings are ‘dis-functional’ (by nature) &, so, tend to get ‘stuck’ in their ‘self-serving’ endeavours. This Problem / Opportunity calls us to ‘PRAY’ (Perfect Relationality Answers Yes): ‘Merciful Jesus, I believe in you & I trust in you, come to the aid of my weakness & incapacity. Grant that I may be able to make you known & loved by all people & that confident in the immensity of your love, I may be able to combat the evil which is in me & in the whole world for Your glory & my salvation’.
When reflecting on the COMPASSIONATE role model of Jesus the Christ we can ‘see’ – in practice & parable – MERCY: ‘Heal Wounds’ (where the Good Samaritan ‘gave of himself’): ‘Warm Hearts’ (where the Loving Father embraced the Prodigal Son): ‘Hold Hands’ (where the Holy Spirit gathered together the people of God into the Body of Christ).
In summary: every Problem is an Opportunity to ‘awaken’ / to ‘wake-up’. It’s a call to bring God ‘into the equation’ / ‘into the picture’. The answer / solution that we need to ‘hold-on-to’ is: ‘Christ died for us’ that we might ‘rise with Him’.