Wednesday, May 13, 2009
"Lord, what is there in this event that I need to focus on? Guide my thoughts, Lover of my soul. Amen"
LIFE AND LOVE IN AN IMPERFECT WORLD
Then seizing him (Jesus) , they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said. Luke 22:54-57
Dear followers of Christ Jesus:
I grew up with mixed feelings of love for my parents. They both were generous and helpful at times, but bad things from others happened to me while I was under their watch. I was shaped by things beyond my control, and my love for them became a mixture of emotions - it was an inconvenient love filled with an unconscious resentment. It took many years for me to consider forgiveness as a "rooster" took up early residence in my young head. Too often good intentions become a matter of convenience. I did it with my parents and I have done it with God.
In the above-quoted passage we read of Jesus' arrest, while Peter "followed from a distance." In this imperfect world, God allows His own arrest and imprisonment; and it is preposterous! How topsy-turvy is that? And what happened to Peter's bravado, when he said, "Lord I am ready to go with you to prison and death." Peter's was an inconvenient love. When the woman accused Peter of being with Jesus, what if Peter had said, "Yes, I am one of His followers, and I love Him more than my own life. Take me as well so that I may suffer with Him."
But life and love in this imperfect world has its inconveniences, with parents and friends, but more importantly with God. We are quick to jump to self-preservation, or so we think, and the rooster hidden in our heads doesn't have much time to sleep. Such is the shaping of our lives and loves. Roosters don't belong in men's heads, but The Lamb is to be much sought after in our heads, hearts, and hands.
Peter suffered greatly as his shaping continued toward the feeding of God's lambs, and who could have imagined the process?
Lowell Martin
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