Holy Week

For some reason, this year, I am more aware of the journey into Holy Week than other years past. Maybe because I came back from a spiritual formation retreat where we focused on the resurrection of Lazarus which happens right before Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In fact, the Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as Lazarus Saturday. Spending three days looking into this story gave me a whole different perspective into this story.

Mary and Martha write to Jesus, calling Lazarus "the one you love." I thought that was such a powerful statement because so much of our identity is in our name and by what we are called. It made me want to be known as the one Jesus loves. Do I live my life in such a way that reflects the power of having such a strong relationship with Jesus that people identify me as the one whom he loves? Wow.

One of the questions from this week was, "How do you know God loves you?" It is a question that really makes you stop and think. For many people, it was easy for us to see how God loves other people and works in their lives, but they struggle seeing that for themselves. As we begin the journey into Holy Week, just like Jesus began the journey into Jerusalem on a colt, I think we need to prepare to see Jesus' actions this week as acts of love. Holy Week is an emotional week and a time of reflection as we prepare for the journey to the cross and the resurrection three days later. As we reflect and prepare, it is important to keep love at the forefront of everything.

So as I begin my personal journey into Holy Week being more aware, I am focusing on God's love through Jesus through each step this week. It is a humbling reminder of what a powerful and mighty God we serve.

Knowing

It is amazing how much we do not know about people. We can assume things, but often our assumptions are incorrect. That is something I am learning.

It also seems the more I learn about people and their experiences, I learn about myself in that process too.

I have spent time reading one of my professors' books, A Whole New World. It is about experiencing the death of their daughter in a car accident and their journey after that experience. It was a heart-wrenching read which reminded me of that compassion that we should have for all people because we do not always know what people have or are going through. One of my favorite quotes is,

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

How true this is! Some people have very private battles buried so deep inside of them that no one knows and others have public battles that everyone can see they are fighting. No matter what, we should walk side by side and be willing to share the journey with someone as we all fight our battles. Maybe, with love and encouragement, we can know that we are not walking this journey alone.

Jonah

The story of Jonah has made an appearance in my life in several places. I heard it at Elevation Church with  my mom and dad, and then I heard it in Chapel at Campbell Divinity School. I think the story of Jonah is one that I have heard that I tend to ignore and not pay much attention because I have heard it so many times before. It becomes easy to not pay attention to something when we have heard it before and assume we know everything about it. However, I think it deserves a second chance. Much like Jonah himself!

Here is an interesting video with a different perspective on the story of Jonah: 


Elevation Creative: Jonah & The Whale from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

What do you think?