Thinking today about:
Lent,
ache, agony, suffering,
the darkness of waiting for Life,
the nourishment of the broken Bread of Life,
the Life in His spilled blood,
seeds shriveling and breaking before blooming,
morning always follows night,
Life always comes out of death.

Because there is a Redeemer. Darkness doesn’t have the last word. Death isn’t the final reality. He takes everything bad and makes light and joy out of it. Sometimes I believe this more than other times, but it’s always true.

If I were perfect, I wouldn’t need a Redeemer. So why desperately protect the facade that makes everything appear ok? May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering. Let His agony on my behalf not be wasted.

So I don’t (usually) willfully sin, but I do foolish, stupid, mindless things that are less than perfect. That’s why I take incredible comfort from the words below, esp. “I restore the good which you own foolish mistakes have cheated you of…”

I tell you that beyond the awful borders imposed by
time and space and contingency,
there lies what you seek.
I announce to you life instead of mere existence,
freedom instead of frustration,
justice instead of compensation.
For I announce to you redemption.
I restore the years that the locusts and worms have eaten,
and the freedom lost to you through plunder
and the identity lost to you because of calumny
and the failure of justice;
and I restore the good
which your own foolish mistakes have cheated you of.
And I bring you to the Love
of which all other loves speak,
the Love which is joy and beauty,
which you have sought in a thousand streets,
and for which you have wept and clawed your pillow.
–Thomas Howard