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How Jesus Responded to Suffering (Repost)

It’s in his story of suffering that we see who Jesus is—the kind of person he is, and the kind of Messiah he is. In particular, we can learn about Jesus from his attitude toward his own suffering while it happens. Looking at the passages in Luke about Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and passion, there are four aspects of his attitude toward suffering that emerge:
• I’m ready for this.
• I don’t have to fight this.
• I can love others in the middle of this.
• There’s something better on the other side of this.

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low-angle photo of high-rise buildings and a tree's leaves

The Work You Have Given Us To Do

In the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican prayer book, there’s a wonderful turn of phrase that comes in a prayer toward the end of the worship service: “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”

The prayers of the church found in the Anglican liturgy have sometimes been called “Scripture arranged for worship.” The poetic cadences are rooted in the words of the Bible, expressing the good news of life and salvation through Jesus Christ in a way that the church can pray together. There’s spiritual wisdom packed into the text; one of the benefits of praying the same prayers week after week is the chance to reflect on them with fresh eyes and ears and draw out more of that wisdom over time.

With this post, I’d like to do just that: Reflect on this simple prayer line by line, allowing the Bible and the church to teach us about the work our Father has given us.

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

Growing Into Our Careers

Growth is a tricky concept. At one level, “career growth” can simply be code for “making more money.” But at another level, it strikes at the real stakes we face in our careers.

An entrepreneur is growing when they’re learning how to build something that really works.

A ladder-climber is growing when they’re learning how to lead other people toward a common goal.

A homebody is growing when they’re learning how to integrate their job responsibilities with their love for their family and their community.

None of these growth tracks is mutually exclusive either. Even if we lean more strongly toward one or the other, we probably could all stand to grow in all of these ways as occasion arises.

There’s another kind of growth, too, that happens in a hidden way, underneath or even inside of these other types of growth: The kind of human being we’re growing into over time as we do our work.

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

Cleaning Our Glasses

My wife Katie is always disgusted when she takes a close look at my glasses. “They’re so filthy!” she complains. Katie is the sort of person who keeps a microfiber cloth handy so she can spot-clean her glasses frequently. I am not that sort of person.

Katie ends up with much cleaner glasses than mine. My vision is constantly obscured by small specks of grit and dust, but my glasses are so close to my eyes I don’t notice. It’s not until I take them off and look at them that I realize Katie is right; they’re filthy.

At work, I often have dirty glasses, too. I think I’m seeing things the way they are, but really there’s grit and dust in the way that distorts my view. My perception of my coworkers, my own work performance, and the work itself is flawed.

What could it look like to take my dirty glasses off and see what’s getting in the way of a clear view?

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

Bread for the Journey

In the old hymn we sing:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

The place where we “tarry” in the hymn is “the garden”—a metaphor for prayer, and a good one. The writer suggests that we walk with Jesus in a place lush with beauty, reminded of God’s care in the roses and the melody of birdsong.

But consider where the hymn was written. It came from the pen of C. Austin Miles, a pharmacist and editor, whose great-granddaughter asserts that he wrote it “in a cold, dreary and leaky basement in Pitman, New Jersey that didn’t even have a window in it let alone a view of a garden.”

Work is like that. We want to hold the world of beauty in our hearts, but we find ourselves in a leaky basement, a sterile elevator, a windowless office. Even if we enjoy working in a setting of natural beauty, work itself imposes more scurrying than tarrying, more urgent productivity than quiet contemplation.

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

Have Mercy on Me, a Worker!

Do you remember smiley-face stickers and gold stars? In elementary school, some of my teachers loved putting them on papers before handing them back.

We still get stickers now, as adults, especially at work: praise from colleagues, feedback from bosses, promotions, raises, and more. Whenever I fail, it’s like I’ve lost a sticker, or been given one with a frowny-face.

In my experience, working with gracious colleagues, the frowny-face is internal. It’s not that someone else gets mad at me when I fail, it’s that I get mad at myself. My own inner critic is a hard taskmaster, one that’s performance-oriented rather than growth-oriented.

Think about the last time you tried for something important at work, and it didn’t go well. Who was your worst critic?

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How Jesus Responded to Suffering

It’s in his story of suffering that we see who Jesus is—the kind of person he is, and the kind of Messiah he is. In particular, we can learn about Jesus from his attitude toward his own suffering while it happens. Looking at the passages in Luke about Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and passion, there are four aspects of his attitude toward suffering that emerge:
• I’m ready for this.
• I don’t have to fight this.
• I can love others in the middle of this.
• There’s something better on the other side of this.

How Jesus Responded to Suffering Read More »

Hard-wrought Joy

It is the joy of Jesus himself that we enter into as we abide in his love. This is the work of the Spirit. It is not a joy that we manufacture; it is a joy that we receive. And, just like Jesus, we enter into it through laying everything down at God’s feet. We die with Christ, and we share in his resurrection life.

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Spiritual Hydration

One news story after another has revealed lurking cases of abuse in faith communities that, from the outside, looked vibrant and whole. These stories can be disorienting. They leave us asking difficult questions. How can I know if a new church community is a safe place? When is it right to extend my trust to the leaders of a church? If I’m serving in leadership, how can I tell whether my own community is a good place for people to find their spiritual footing?

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