Willing to Take On

Why did Jesus have to take on flesh and blood to bring our salvation?  That was the question we were answering in Hebrews 2 this morning.  The thing that is still blowing my mind is that Jesus willingly stepped into our world, our mess, our fault, and bore it all.  He rescued us from what we deserved by doing what we refuse to do...suffer willingly.  He created a perfect world.  He gave it to man because He loved us.  He gave us freedom to choose to walk with Him, or to listen to the seductive voice of pride.  When we chose to walk away from Him He chose to step in and rescue us.  He chose suffering and death so that we could have glory.

All of sudden it made my motherly love seem really small.  First, I don't want to suffer.  I want to be comfortable.  I let fear creep into my life and hide.  Second, I don't want my kids to suffer.  I want them to be comfortable and happy.  That's an idol that I need to let go of.  Not only that, I need to be willing to step into my children's messes.  Even the messes that they got themselves into.  The ones I warned them about and told them were going to be messy.  I need to draw near to God and go in with Him and rescue them when He tells me to.  That doesn't mean I keep them from suffering consequences of bad decisions, but I am willing to sit with them, identify with them, and walk through the mess with them.  I am proud to call them my kids, even when they look bad.

Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers.  He came and took on flesh and blood so that He could be a faithful and merciful high priest for us.  He was perfect.  I am not.  I am called to walk with other imperfect people, especially the ones that I can relate to.  I am not called to look down on them and wonder at their stupidity.  I am called to see myself in them, to remember how dark things were, and to guide them to the light.  I know from my own life that they will stumble.  They will whine.  They will want to turn back to the easy way.  They won't want to suffer.  I have to be willing to suffer with them.  I have to be willing to suffer at all.  Suffering takes time and energy that I would rather spend on something more pleasant.  There will be joy, but it comes through suffering.  Suffering getting up early every morning to suffer the pain of exercise for the joy of being in shape.  Suffering strained relationships for the joy of reconciling.  Suffering waiting for God to move for the joy of knowing Him better.  There will be much suffering in this life, for the joy of getting to know Jesus better.

The end of this life is to know God better and to love Him.  Everything we do should be moving us in that direction.  When we choose to find an easier way, a more comfortable way, a more glamorous way we are choosing a lie.  Kids don't be afraid of the hard things.  The hard things teach us that suffering produces joy.  It starts with learning that suffering to not eat all your Halloween candy in one night, brings the joy of weeks of candy.  Suffering to go to bed early brings the joy of getting up cheerful.  Suffering to not date until you are old enough to make some wise decisions brings the joy of healthy relationships (or at least a lot fewer unhealthy ones).  Suffering to listen to Mom's advice brings the joy of not getting into embarrassing situations.  Suffering to walk with Christ brings the joy of freedom from sin.  I know it is easy to convince myself that I deserve a break.  I should lighten up and have some fun, maybe, but I need to stop and really ask myself if what I am trying to do is avoid suffering that needs to happen.  I have gotten pretty good at avoiding some suffering that has robbed me of my joy.

As my kids grow up and take on responsibility for their own decisions, I need to remember that suffering will come.  Some suffering will be self inflicted, but some will be just be part of life.  Either way my job is to love them.  They are not perfect.  They will ignore my good advice and choose to figure things out on their own.  God knows that too.  He has watched His children choose foolishly from the beginning, that is why Jesus had to take on flesh and blood.  He didn't wimp out.  He suffered perfectly unto death, to give us eternal life.  When my kids wimp out I have to remember what Jesus did for me, and be willing to suffer with them, to show them the better way.  I have so much left to learn.