A popular worship anthem by songwriter Brooke Fraser says, “Lead me to the cross where Your love poured out/ Bring me to my knees, Lord, I lay me down/ Rid me of myself, I belong to You.”
These words are easy to sing, but hard to live. Do we really mean it when we ask God to bring us to our own Via Dolorosa: a situation of sacrifice and suffering, where our friends turn away from us and we are stripped of any human importance?
Too often I – and perhaps you can identify with me – thank God for His comfort and grace, while asking Him to shield me from hardship, even though St. Paul urges us to be thankful for the privilege of being included in the sufferings of Christ. Suffering, we are told, is the fire that burns away our dross; it is the file to round off our sharp edges; it is the sanding cloth that polishes the jewels.
Even in seasons with little to trouble us, God does not give us comfort and grace to make us comfortable, but so that we can go out and pour them on others! Recently we received a donation of $1.50 from a prisoner who has learned this lesson well. In gratitude for how he’s been blessed by God, and out of the very little he has to make himself comfortable – he gave so that Prison Fellowship® can share God’s love with even more men and women.
I challenge all of us to do the same. If we’ve received comfort from our Father, let’s comfort others. If we’ve been served, let’s serve. It’s the way of Jesus – the way of the cross.