GodReflection: Conflict Zone.
It is frustrating. How come everyone else in this world thinks they must have their way? It is so tiring. Why Can’t We Get Our Way? Just once and for a while, even if not for long, it would be nice to get our way don’t you think?
Maybe we better listen to Jesus and let some reality shine into our lives. In the beginning of Jesus’s work as a man on our earth, he has quite a long teaching full of life’s realities that he wants to share with all of us. The occasion arrives when a crowd of several thousand people come to listen to him.
To make the best of outdoor acoustics he climbs a mountain and speaks so all can hear. Close to the beginning of what covers three long chapters in Matthew’s Gospel, we come across this lesson to address our expectations about getting our way. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12).
Not long after Jesus called twelve men, whose lives were just crammed full of potholes, to train as his first twelve Apostles, he gives them a hard lesson.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9:23-25)
Who chooses a cross? I certainly don’t! Our crosses put us directly within the Conflict Zone. Crosses don’t come because We Get Our Way. Crosses mean suffering. Crosses mean pain. Crosses mean death. No one would choose to take up their cross willingly.
Yet one man did. That man was Holy God who knew he had to become a human to feel our suffering, pain, and to experience our death. By so doing our Holy God-Jesus was willing to become responsible for every sin you and I would commit during our lifetime.
He walked toward his cross so that you and I would find the courage to walk toward our own cross every day to lose our life on behalf of others. That is Why We Can’t Get Our Way. How about that for a reality check!
Recently, in the middle of the night, the hymn of the nineteen century Jessie Brown Pounds invaded my mind. The way of the cross leads home. The way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. Yes, the way of the cross leads home, that same way also brings us directly into the Conflict Zone.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: Why Can’t We Get Our Way?
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