“Love like there’s no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again.”- Max Lucado
“Christ goes to the cross, and we are invited to follow to the same cross. Not because it is the cross, but because it is His.”- Peter Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering (1986)
In Chapter 13 (“The Inconvenient Truth No One Tells You”) of The Broken Way, Ann Voskamp asserts the clearest way to love your life involves imagining losing parts of it. Furthermore, you realize how much you love only when facing life without the loveliness of those you love. Therefore, everything changes when you read suffering as Christ’s invitation to not only follow Him to the cross, but share His cross.
As a result, Ann exhorts us to pray for a bravery bigger than the hard thing at hand. Battling brave means working through the hard thing, not praying too quickly for the hard thing to go away.
Furthermore, Ann notes, every soul must pass over the river of suffering to reach the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ cross, nailed together with love, enables us to cross that river of suffering. In fact, Ann believes, if you avoid suffering, you avoid love.
Consequently, Ms. Voskamp describes the way through brokenness. Ann explains:
“The way through brokenness is, and always has been, to break the sufferer free from the aloneness of the suffering by choosing to participate in the suffering with them — koinonia — choosing to stand with the suffering, stay with the suffering, and letting it be shaped into meaning that transcends the suffering.”
In order to do this, Ann observes, choose the option of prayer warrior- not panicked worrier. Perhaps, Ann concludes, the most painful chapters of your life = the most meaningful.
Today’s question: During your desert, land between time, how have you given love like there’s no tomorrow? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the Christmas Short Meditation, “Tinsel in a tangle”
