Good Friday and Easter
Posted
Monday, March 24, 2008 9:21 PM
The weekend was interesting, to say the very least.
My husband and I went to the Good Friday service at our church. It wasn't anything particularly special, but there was one part of the message that really hit home with me and was exactly what I needed after some recent struggles. Pastor Brent spoke partly on the idea of suffering for Christ and taking joy in it. Being a devout Christian for many years now, I had always equated suffering for Christ with "real" suffering, like missionaries do in communist countries, or getting beat up at school for your beliefs. I've had days where I've wondered how I would handle myself when presented the opportunity to suffer for Him.
However, the pastor spoke on how simply living a Christ-like life often leads to suffering for Him. When you do the right thing and go the extra mile for someone only to be flatly rejected...that, too, is suffering for Him. I don't necessarily need to bite my tongue when others offend me, nor do I need to try to make others feel good, to keep relations open with them when they've clearly shown no interest in me. However, it's what I am supposed to do. Any pain derived from that rejection is suffering for Him, and I can find joy in doing so. I don't think I am typing the concept out very well, but it really is a concept that I was missing in my life. It gives me encouragement to keep trying in the face of being let down and pushed away so many times by others.
This whole concept played a huge factor in what happened on Easter as well. I don't want to sit here and paint ugly pictures of my family members, but I will say that the spirit of Easter, that of forgiveness and grace, was missing from the hearts of those I was to spend the holiday with. Spending time with a relative who some of my family members hate led to me being cast out of their hearts and relatively unwelcome in their home. I want to detail it more, but the last thing I need is someone somehow finding this and an episode from several years back being repeated all over again. I don't know how long it will take for things to mend, but I take comfort in knowing that I and the others who were with me absolutely did the right thing. I have no shame or guilt to bear.
Other than all of that, I had a few nightmares last night. The funny thing is, my husband and I both dreamt of our baby at the same time...only he had a good dream, and I didn't. (He remembered his dream, too! We were holding and cuddling our baby and just enjoying our time with him/her. ^^;; So sweet.) In my dream, I had given our baby to someone to watch after for a short while. (Apparently, I also gave them a card...) After I came back, the baby was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere and eventually found the card, but not our baby. I was even searching in some huge closet where there was a gigantic box of old baby dolls, but no baby. ;~; My husband had awoken from his dream, which led me to waking up, so that's how we figured out we dreamt at the same time. :)
Anyway, I best be getting back to work now. I hope everyone has had a good start to the week!