Like millions of people around the world, I am terribly saddened by the suffering in Haiti, and I think of those poor, beleaguered people. From far away, all we can do is pray, but we know that our prayers here can help them there.
In the midst of pain and suffering, the cross still stands. It stands as a sign of hope, since Jesus' death and resurrection is the ultimate act of love and hope.
Later on in the day as I drove around town doing errands, I was listening to Matt Maher's CD "Alive Again". One of the songs on it is "You Were on the Cross". I have grown to love this song, particularly in the face of circumstances that I don't understand. The lyrics are eerily appropriate to this sad situation in Haiti. (There was a live version posted that I like more, but this one has the lyrics.)
In Matt's own words about this song at a concert last year - "When the world looks at poverty and hunger, and the world looks at disease and natural disasters, and yells out “Where is God?, you say, “He’s on the cross. He’s on the cross because of suffering. He’s on the cross because of disease. He’s on the cross because of sin, because of shame, because of anger, because of deceit." And from Matt's liner notes - "In the Laments of Job, you get this sense of, "everything is lost, everything is gone, everything that I have worked so hard for, everything that I had been blessed with and I have sores all over me" - I think most people don't really stop to imagine what that must have been like for Job. I got to thinking 'God where were you when this happened?' He was on the cross. I realized that not only is the cross in and of itself the atonement for all sin, but the way in which it happened is now a means by which all human suffering becomes a transformational moment. It does not matter how dark your situation is - God himself has been there and as you grieve it and mourn it you can find consolation in him because he was there."
"Whenever I feel that the things of the world are too much for me, I take refuge at the foot of the Cross. Even if the whole world is shrouded in darkness, if the curtains of all my temples are rent, if I cannot see, nor hear, nor understand, I know that I am safe at the feet of my crucified Saviour."- Catherine Doherty
That song was hauntingly beautiful. Good choice. First time I've heard it. Leave it to Maher :)
ReplyDeleteThe world needs to hear this message, is starving for it. I think more people suffer from believing God is not good than that he does not exist. This post reminded me of my favorite Peter Kreeft article, one I've shared with friends who've lost family and wondered if God was loving them or mocking them: http://peterkreeft.com/topics/suffering.htm It's called "What is God's answer to human suffering?" The point is the answer must be someone, not just something.
Where explanations fail, there is a real reassurance. The questions have answers. Jesus, the crowning proof of God's goodness. God, and only God, truly has the right to say, "I know how you feel."
-AW