Dear Faith Family,
We humans have a habit of projecting our feelings onto our environment, "so that the outward becomes expressive of the inward." And, there are also times when the outward circumstances of existence cast a mirrored image of our inward journey, conditions that strip away our securities, widdle down our strength, and overwhelm us like a dense forest in "the valley of deep darkness."
The realities of our moment--those uncertainties of what tomorrow brings, the loss of connection, finances, experiences, health, opportunities, and the clarity of our lack of control--have left many of us feeling as though we have been tossed overboard from a sinking ship into a tempest wrecked sea struggling to keep from falling beneath the waves. I am not trying to be dramatic. I have prayed with many these last few weeks who, because of these outward circumstances, have come to their end, "the shadow of death," cast over the things they depend upon for life.
I have been thinking about this a lot, especially in light of all that we commemorated and celebrated this past weekend. Remembering Jesus' experience of sinking beneath the physical and relational agony until it took his life, his outward circumstances mirroring his inward anguish helps us in our similar moments. His suffering means that no matter whether we project our internal spiral onto outer circumstances or are drug down into internal affliction through outward events, there is one who has gone down before us, who has sunk further than we will have to fall.
It is the "loyalty and solidarity" of our Good Shepherd that comforts us as we descend into the valleys that must be traversed towards our "surely" ascents (Ps. 23), and it is Jesus' going further than we will ever have to which compelled me to write this for us:
When falling we look for a rope from above
to catch us as we sink;
but what if help is underneath?
What if rescue were to come
from descending
into the arms of sightly defeat.
There is one who sank further.
He plummeted so that we would know,
He plunged further than we will ever go.
He descended upon the devil's gate,
freeing them from their hinges.
He descended so that our fate,
is to rise with his ascending.
'And though you cannot see, or speak, or breath,
the everlasting arms are underneath.'
Praying that you would find comfort in your falling, as you discover that help grips you from underneath. Love you. God bless.