Perspective

On Sunday my preacher at my church here talked about Jesus on the cross. Initially I thought to myself "I've heard all this before, it can't be anything I haven't heard". Well as you can guess I was completely wrong. I had seen the movie The Passion of Christ and I thought "Surely he cannot say anything worse than this". Wrong again. 

Jamie told us how 6 out of 10 people who were sentenced to crucifixion never even made it to the cross itself. The torture before it was so severe that many didn't make it. He described how Jesus' vertebrae probably would've been showing from beatings. The pain that was described was unbelievable. Many people were crying, many walked out but all sat in total shock. The sermon was the news of the day, the whole congregation were talking about it. When I sat there and heard this story, tears were swelling in my eyes. It had been a frustrating week. A painful week. But when I heard this, in such detail, I realized how my pain was nothing compared to this. My heart break was nothing compared to this. I felt that people had caused this pain and frustration I was feeling. But I caused the pain that Jesus went through, he went through that for ME, and for YOU. And you know what? He would do it all over again for us. He wouldn't even think twice. That my friends is true love. See pain in our life is inevitable, it is a fact of life. But it is suffering which is optional. 

Christ died on a cross, something which represented crime and defeat. He died a criminals death. But He turned this symbol of the cross into a symbol of victory. Christ has invited us to "take up our cross", we must die to this world, to sin. But it is through this invitation to die, that we have an invitation to live. We have an invitation to really live a full life. God will take us amazing places, but we have to allow Him to, we have to hold nothing back, we have to surrender our lives. It is through losing our lives that we will find them.