The relentless quest for JOY in our society through the vehicle of sexual intercourse has now spawned 50 Shades of Freed, the latest offering from E.L. James, seeking to tantalize and capitalize once again through the sadomasochistic perversion of this wonderful God designed gift of physical love.
God-incidentally, this is both St. Valentines day and Ash Wednesday. Today there are two doors many people will choose to step through.
Those who step through the door of the ‘sanct-uary’ will receive a mark of ash on their foreheads, as a sign that they want to access more deeply the Passion of the Christ. Those who step through the door of the ‘sin-ema’ will receive a different mark in their foreheads as they are exposed to the lie behind all sin, that we will find what we are looking for through ignoring the ‘Makers Manual’ and like the lead character in the Fifty Shades trilogy called, ‘Christian’, follow our own dark passions.
You can only counterfeit something that is real and it is when we waken from this Christian’s ‘Grey’ world to the truth about what love is that we can experience God’s Jubilee (50) and really be FREED.
Last Sunday a couple we have known for years asked if they might come to our fellowship meeting for prayer concerning a rather tortuous journey they have been on to retain custody of a child they are in the process of adopting.
At one point as they told their story the usually stoic brother asked, his voice quivering with emotion,
“Why does this have to be so hard?”
Scanning the circle of a dozen folk whom we have grown to know intimately over the years, all listening attentively, I was aware his question had landed on a compassionate body of understanding ones as on a comforting cushion.
For example one brother’s wife disappeared 7 years ago with their 5 children. He hasn’t seen them since. Another has more recently lost his wife. Each one in the circle has had to walk a unique path of fiery trials in order to discover and experience some serious joy!
It is the redemptive power of God in the midst of our suffering that transforms the pain of separation or prospective separation into the occasion for the blossoming of a living faith that yields real joy.
Both James and Peter tell us when faced with pain which door to enter through: “Consider it pure JOY…… when you meet fiery trials which prove your faith………for you end up really trusting in him…… filled with inexpressible and glorious JOY.” (PKV)
Even as a boy having barely begun the journey through this ‘vale of tears’ I was always deeply moved by the hymn that contains the line, “O joy that seekest me through pain.”
One verse goes,
“O cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be”
Although the photo above came to me as part of an innocent St. Valentine’s mailing from a ‘healthy wine’ company, I saw it’s connection with the sentiments of the hymn. Ironically the only way to life is through death….or rather through our entering into Christ’s death by giving our most loved ones up to God even as he demonstrated true love by giving up his most loved one for us. The only way to true joy is through facing and embracing the pain. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
After flowing together in the Spirit for some time between wisdom, prayer, and song, our journey on Sunday came to a God given climax as I read a text Hilary and I had received just minutes before the meeting from a dear friend who despite all her brave efforts to save her child had just tragically lost her to drugs.
“I am humbled that God has chosen to take our daughter home. Mary Elizabeth Anderson August 1 1995 – February 8 2018 gifted 5 people with terminal illness with her organs, several of the recipients being children. I have always been proud of her beyond measure, and now even, more so!!!”
With pure joy we wept our way through this closing song.
If you’d like to step through the door of Father’s House of Love into true FREEDOM! you can register for our upcoming retreat here.