Inspirations

It was the day after Jesus was crucified.     The world seemed to echo the silence of the grave  that the disciples had laid their master in yesterday.    Jesus was dead and with his death, their hopes died too.   They had placed all their confidence in this maverick  this teacher,  from Galilee that taught like no one else.    There was no plan now, only gloom.    Their hopes lay wrapped in a tomb sealed up forever.  He had raised others, Lazarus,  the little girl of a high priest,  and the widow’s son  but no one could raise themselves from the dead.    No one.     They hung their heads and wept.    Replaying every scene of the previous day  replayed endlessly in their mind adding to their sorrow.    The finality of his death etched forever in their hearts.

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”   Matthew 26:42 Last Sunday I was watching the “Passion of the Christ.”  As I was watching the movie, they got to the scene with Jesus in the garden with Jesus speaking these words “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”  It occurred to me how often we want to say, “My will be done.”  However, Jesus knew what would happen next still said,  "Your will be done."  What if we prayed like that more often?  I can’t promise your life would be more comfortable.  Jesus life wasn’t.  But when I can let go of my will and accept God's plan for me. This hard because I can be pretty selfish. I want my own way. But if I can grasp the fact that Jesus could say this, then maybe he will give me the same streng...

            So, he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.              Washing a person’s feet is something that has lost significance in our society.    Es pecially in first world countries.    Almost everyone can wash their own feet.    It’s no wonder that this narrative seems to have lost significance.              While washing the feet of your guests when they visit is something that has  fallen by the wayside, I hope that we can look at the principle behind it and  see  what the intent was.    Was the intent that everyone goes around literally washing people...

I was tired, worn out.  The day had been long, yet, as I closed my eyes,  I found sleep elusive. So many thoughts kept running through my mind. So I began praying,              praying for my children who are living their own lives.              praying that they always look to God.              praying that God will bless them. I started praying for our country.              praying that we, as a nation, will seek God.              praying for wisdom in the coming election              wisdom to know who should get my vote. As I was praying, God gave me some insight that gave me peace and calmed my mind. God reminded me that on the day Jesus was crucified, there were likely many who disagreed with the crowd. They could have voiced their opinion, ...

Today has been a quiet, meditative Easter.  So I've been sitting here in my “comfy” chair and thinking.  I was reflecting on Jesus’ death and how it must have seemed so final.  It was the end.  They were beginning to trust this Jesus and then he died a horrible death at the hands of his enemies. They were just beginning to have hope and then “bam” it was snuffed out like a candle.   I was thinking of their confusion when the women ran in saying that Jesus was alive.  They wanted to believe, but the situation must have seemed so bleak, so unlikely, so impossible that it was just too much to think about right at that moment.   Then later, Jesus joined them in the upper room.  Imagine their joy!  As I was thinking about how overjoyed they must have felt, I couldn’t help weeping myself.   I was weeping for the unimaginable joy that they must have felt when they realized Jesus was alive.  I was wee...

It’s Easter Saturday the day sandwiched between “Good Friday” and “Resurrection Sunday.”   There are dinners being planned, Easter egg hunts, and all kinds of other plans being made for our celebration of Easter.  I imagine the scene the first Easter was quite different.  No one was planning meals; they were making burial plans perhaps they had even dispensed with eating.  The disciples were somber.  They had watched Jesus die a horrific death one day earlier.  They thought he was going to be a king, but now he was gone and for all they knew, they were the next ones on the list.  The mood was quiet, there was no busyness only uncertainty.  The uncertainty of what they had witnessed and what they should do now.  They had no grand expectation of Jesus rising from the dead.  What they had on Easter Saturday was the finality of death; just that and nothing else.  So as we think about Easter Saturday lets quiet out hearts and foc...