Last hours before an epic, no-holds-barred sacrifice

It was quiet as they all listened to one voice, his voice.

They were in the last hours, though they did not fully understand this, the last hours before the epic, no-holds-barred sacrifice was made. They listened carefully as he prayed that all who believed in him would be one, as he and his heavenly father are one, and that the unity of those who believed in him would be evidence to the world that he was sent from God (John 17).

He was Jesus, the son of God. He came to restore the relationship between God and all of mankind. In his love, he chose us first, making a way for us to find him and leaving the relationship wide open for us to choose life with him or not.

As we look over our present day lives and the histories of those who have come before us, we have to admit that sometimes you cannot tell that we, the followers of Christ, are one or that we are evidence to the world of who Jesus is. Honest introspection is hard, and there is no freedom without it. The stories of encounters with the unfriendly Christian are not fiction, they are real events But they are not the whole story. There are those who are choosing another path, a path of hope and courage.

As followers of Christ, we belong to each other. That is how it’s supposed to be. We are called to be committed in our devotion to each other, loving each other with a sincere, fully embracing, staying for the full-court press and courageous love that honors others above ourselves. Our love is to be joyful in hope, patient in trial and faithful in prayer, sharing with those in need, not repaying evil for evil, but celebrating with those who celebrate and mourning with those who mourn. Our love should never be too proud to throw its arms about those whose life path joins ours (Romans 12).

Aren’t we hungry for this? Perhaps our eyebrows are raised just a bit wondering how in the world this is to happen.

There is only one thing you and I have absolute control over, and that is our choices. Every day, every moment we choose. We choose our words. We choose our actions. No one “makes us.” We choose. We have to own that. We must choose to be lovers. We must continually bring our hearts back to the message of Bethlehem, Golgotha, the empty tomb, the indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit and the eternity that is still unfolding. We must continually turn to the arms and presence of the living Christ, our Lord Jesus.

Yes, he is Lord. He must be Lord. That is where our sweet spot is! That is what we were made for, life in his presence. We must relentlessly pursue a relationship with him for it is from this relationship we become who we were made to be. It is a process. It is from this relationship our hearts are finally full, we are being transformed and empowered to love each other, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to love as Jesus loves, choosing to love first whether we are loved back or not.

Our love cannot be conditional. Yes, it is a sacrifice and sometimes we suffer, we will suffer, that is when love is most powerful.

My dear family, this is who we must be, who we must choose to become. It’s not a one-time choice. It is an every day, every moment choice to surrender our way of loving to Christ’s way. The Holy Spirit partners with us, empowers us to make these daily choices. We can only do it by his power, not our own. This crazy loving way must permeate all that we are to each other and to the world around us. This crazy loving way is a road of joy and hardship and is fully satisfying in the most unexpected ways.

Listen. There is no pain so great, no hole so deep, no entanglement so complex, no experience so dark, no failure so complete that God cannot bring us back to a right path and understanding with him and each other.

If we have done wrong we must urgently be about the business of confessing our wrongs to God, seeking forgiveness from each other and turning away from the path we were on. We must choose for ourselves the path of forgiveness. Others may not choose forgiveness and that is their choice. Our healing depends on our choices and not the choices of others. God will help us.

We must hold on to the understanding that God is for us. We are fully known to him, and nothing is hidden. We are fully loved, fully chosen and fully forgiven. He is always at work on our behalf, bringing goodness out of pain and bringing life out of death. He will restore, heal and make whole. He will see us through. He will not fail us and, if we will allow him to work it in us, our journey through pain and forgiveness will become a beacon of encouragement and hope to others, pointing them to their living, loving God who is waiting for them to choose the fullness and joy of life with him.

Let’s see this done. Let’s become this evidence of the living God, this evidence of life brought from what was dead, this evidence of crazy, courageous love, this evidence of the eternal life on its way. In Christ, through his transforming power, we can make this choice, we can become one, we can become evidence.

It was quiet as they all listened to one voice, his voice. They were in the last hours though they did not fully understand this, the last hours before the epic, no-holds-barred sacrifice was made.

Joy Chastagner is a member of Church on the Rock in Palmer.

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