I am a sucker for the ordinary, for routine, for normalcy.Taco Tuesdays.
Laundry on Sundays.
Unloading the dishwasher after one cup of coffee in bed.
Goodnight routines with little humans.
These things give me great joy. The knowing. Yet, once something difficult arises, even if it becomes ordinary or routine, I am anxious for it to go. As a child when something hard was happening my mom would always reassure me that...
This, too, shall pass
I clung to that knowledge fiercely, that the bad stuff would eventually end. I clung to it so hard, in fact, that I overlooked the universality of that truth. This was not just the hard stuff, this was also the good stuff, the comfortable stuff, the things and people I loved.
As we walk through Holy Week we are reminded of the pain that Jesus endured, not just on the cross, but in betrayal and disappointment and wishing things could be different. While enduring the unimaginable, Christ continues to hold lightly to things. His understanding of eternity is such that he is able to experience the heart-wrenching end of his earthly life as a temporary experience in the vastness of eternity. He is able to extend forgiveness in the midst of pain and extend grace when none is given to Him.
In today's reading from Hebrews it's written,
"Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God."
Life changes when we live as Christ did. Life changes when we stop holding so tightly to the good and working so hard to avoid the bad. When we stop holding on we are freed to experience all the parts of this life that are temporary, teaching and molding us, moving us closer to that, 'joy that is set before' us.
I am not sure what eternity looks like or feels like but I know that when we allow ourselves to live in it, to let the truth of it settle in our bones, we enter a stream of existence, with the great cloud of witnesses, where love and grace abound no matter the temporary experience.
When we live life as both eternal and temporary, 'this, too, shall pass' becomes not a placate for suffering but rather a mantra for how we experience life. Enjoying the times of joy with the knowledge they will not last forever and moving and growing through the times of struggle knowing that they, too, will not last.
This Holy Week, no matter where you are in your life, I pray that the God of love and grace fill you with joy and peace.
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