The Breadth of Suffering

Meditating on the Passion of Christ reveals so many truths to the soul. It amazes me that the passion is so bloody and gruesome, but at the same time, comforting. Maybe comforting isn't the right word. Restoring. It would seem that God Himself endured every kind of suffering that we endure as humans. Christ must have been the most human man in history. He endured: hunger, temptation, poverty, fatigue, dread, betrayal of friends, indifference of friends, death of friends, being misunderstood, ostracism, attempted stoning, pain in the head, pain in the feet, pain in the hands, pain in the side, pain in the back, pain in the knees, inability to breathe, dizziness from blood loss, thirst, falling, falling again, mortification, splinters, falling again, watching his mother suffer, mockery, beatings, injustice, helplessness, feeling totally forsaken by God, death, hell. Is there anything we suffer that He doesn't understand?

Dressing Simply for Lent

This is the way I want to see clothes: Beauty is not in the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, & wearing of fine clothing. Clothes are beautiful, but they themselves are not beauty. Rather, beauty is in the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. What matters more: God's sight or man's? Which carries more weight? What did Our Lord Himself choose to wear when he walked on earth? He wore a simple tunic without seam, woven from top to bottom. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin (nor shop); yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Is a child ever any less or more beautiful because of the way they're dressed? Truly, I say to you, unless you turn & become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Why do we trouble ourselves so much with things that have no eternal value? Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy. We should be ready to lay our garments across the back of the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. We should gladly lay them on the road before Him, praising Him. After all, He was stripped of His garments to be exposed on a criminal's cross for love of us. "Yet even now," says the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts & not your garments." The Lord desires our hearts. What good is it if we "offer" things up for 40 days if we have no love? It means nothing. We must offer it for a purpose; offer it with devotion. My heart should go first to Him, then everything else can follow: my wardrobe, my jewelry, my "style." Once my perspective is focused on Him, then I can have the right perspective on clothes.