Amy Welborn, who recently lost her husband, wrote a powerful post yesterday and given me much fodder for my Lenten reflection tomorrow:
"As I walk around with this loss and mystery within, alternately holding it close and wanting to present it to others, inviting them to examine it with me, I have been moved to wonder, in turn, what losses and mysteries they carry themselves.
"As someone once observed, 'Be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle.'
"What I settle on is this, for the moment:
"Everyone is carrying the pain around, along with the hope and grace that does, indeed, glimmer, even faintly. It is maybe not so sensitive and might actually be an act of self-absorption to simply dump all of our own pain on anyone who happens to walk by - we can't do that, for in indiscriminately pouring out our souls we are revealing an indifference to what others are prepared to hear.
"Crosses, we call them.
"Everyone is carrying a cross. Heavy crosses. Perhaps part of the Christian life involves recognizing that reality at the core of every person's life and a delicate balance of being careful not to add to the burden, but to be open, at the same time, to allowing Christ to work through us, if he chooses, to help them bear it...for just a little while."
Read the post here: Brave Heart
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My Lenten meditation for Thursday:
- What crosses have I been given in my life?
- Do I join my burden to Christ's and walk in his path, carrying these crosses as He would have me carry them? Or do I bitterly complain and blast them?
- What are the crosses I see in those around me?
- Am I so focused on my own crosses that I am blinded or neglectful to the graveled trenches made in front of me by the burdened paths of my neighbors?
- How do I fit into the role of Simon of Cyrene and help those around me carry their cross?
- Do I recognize Christ in those who help me carry my crosses?
- Do I carry my cross with humility...knowing that it is through our crosses and because of them that we understand our own call to salvation?
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"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' "~ Mark 8:34
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