Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life… 2 Cor 4:16 (MSG)
PART 2 – Heartache Tonight
Go to PART 1
Charles Dickens knew exactly what he was saying when he began his “A Tale of Two Cities” with:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
I feel as though we could be living in these times – we experience wondrous highs and devastating lows. Evil persists around the world, yet hope is ever present. Triumph and heartache exist all at once. It's enough to twist your heart in knots. How can I revel in my win when my neighbour has experienced such loss? How can I rejoice with a friend when my heart is full of sorrow?
But things are not always as they seem. And although it looks like our beautiful world is full of trouble, heartache, hopelessness, injustice, terror and harm – there is something at work behind the scenes.
There is an old quote that says, “If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.”
Winston Churchill said that pain “calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
The unrest we feel, the pain that lingers, the thoughts that gnaw at our souls and sleep are the things that drive us to seek, ask and discover answers, new ways, new ideas… It helps us locate and treat heartache, dig out problems and find solutions… Pain yearns for grace, resolution, relief… healing.
Christ’s ultimate act of love came not from perfection, wholeness or peace. But it was wrought with pain, terror and heartache. The brutality of his murder contrasted with the hope and miraculousness of his resurrection tells us that from heartache can come deep joy. Our lives are attacked in a million different ways all across the earth, just as Christ's was. But even still, against all hope, he rose again. And now that transition from death to life is evidenced in our own lives. We carry around both the struggle and the relief, death and life, pain and healing.
This is what Christ is about. Not behaviour modification. Not who’s right and who's wrong… but taking broken pieces of the world and putting them back together again bit by bit, person by person. We have this treasure, 2 Corinthians 4 tells us, within our very bodies. The treasure of Jesus – hope, peace, love and faith. His light housed in brokenness so that it might be evident that the power of God is not repelled by our pain, evicted by our doubts, or dulled by our heartache. But rather is fulfilled in these sacred spaces of our humanity. The place where the natural and the divine collide in the most gracious of ways.
It may be the best and worst of times… but grace is at work through it all.
Go to PART 3 – Unfolding Grace
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