ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT JESUS

Jesus is not an imaginary spookish maybe-ism for any who are bent on being churchy of sorts.  No, he stood up to religion and fought off its scammish life-sucking direction. That alone should gain our favoritism toward him.  He broke down the barriers of religious regulation and broke open common relationship with the living and active present-day Father.

While all of that is a wow in itself, one of my very favorite things about Jesus is to know how he knew.  How did he know how the woman at the well felt?  He, too and as she, was being rejected as he walked the streets of Jerusalem.  How does he know what it's like to be you; challenged by opponents, betrayed by best friends, insulted by the religious egoists, criticized by too many?  How does he know?

My favorite thing about Jesus is that he understands you and me because he waded into the very center of human hardship.  Consider as you read the gospels how he was opposed in story after story.  He learned about you and me by hurting in the very middle of where you and I hurt.  The Cross has a message as he hung from it; I IDENTIFY.  Get it?  He didn't identify with the high and mighty.  He understood broken humanity...as he was so very truly broken.

So it is with our crosses that we carry.  They are important because from them, where we hurt, we IDENTIFY with any and all around us who hurt in like manner.  Therefore, regardless of what annoying interference we are going through at any given moment, each is quite important for we are learning how others live in similar agony.

To live by avoiding pain is the worst of waste for it is our very suffering which serves as a classroom of learning how to help others...because we IDENTIFY.  You see, for the most part, we are likely to spend our efforts trying to escape our frustrations, our agonies, our injuries.  As a result, we live frustrated and in agony and full of pain because of one thing; we did not realize their value is for the direct intention of helping us to understand where others hurt and how we might help.

If we don't hurt, we are no help.  Jesus hurt so that he could say to Father, I get it!  I understand why they react the way they do because I had the very same thing happen to me; insult and rejection, pain and agony...even the way of death.  I get it, Father.  Show them mercy.

It is here, in what we believe are our negatives, that we find our value because we understand others in their negatives.  Jesus helped us and we, via our crosses, help others.  One of my favorite things about Jesus is that he understands the hills and valleys of our muddled terrain...and, with compassion, endured so that he could show us the way to meaning-full life!