40days : Tell Your Story

rajarshi March 10, 2008 | 11:14 am

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.  How gracious he will be when you cry for help!  As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you! ”
IHe will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful.  (Isaiah 30: 18 – 23)
I woke up this morning, so grateful to be alive and able to think clearly, to be able to move and do what was needed to get our son Partha ready for school, and myself to work.  My heart was filled to overflowing with your love, Jesus. 

Lord, does our “bread of adversity” and “water of affliction” come from you?  In trying to think through this, people over the ages have stumbled – one group thinks that everything we go through in life is your will, while the other tries to separate “good” and “evil.” Both groups run into problems.  The first group has to understand why God would give us adversity and afflictions deliberately.  The second group runs aground in not being able to separate what is good and what is evil, since we humans have such a limited perspective of what happens in our lives.  Hindus call this the question of non-duality and duality. 

No one knows why evil exists.  Jesus faced just this problem in his life as a human being.  He was tempted by the devil at the beginning of his ministry and struggled to understand what God’s will was for him before he was crucified.  He faced adversity from people who should have known better, who had been given the gift of the scriptures by God.  As God’s Son, he was able to see that God works for the good of all those who love Him, and does not allow us to suffer without the opportunity of experiencing God’s love and presence.  He told us that if we believe this, God would give us the strength to overcome whatever trials and adversity we face in life.  Hindus and Buddhists, Muslims and Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, all believe that this strength lies within us, in the divine spark that is the gift of our Creator to every living being, which is waiting to be kindled through prayer.  Every moment of life is an opportunity for us to do this, to connect with God and accept the love that He offers us unconditionally.

God has created us each with a special unique purpose in life.  Will we accept His plan for us, and how do we find out what it is?  He tells us that when we cry out to Him for help, He will answer us.  He will send us teachers, and will make clear to us what our path is in life.  To walk in this path requires us to get rid of the clutter that we have accumulated – the habits and addictions, the idols and images, the ways of living that obscure God’s presence every day.  Adversity and affliction may be what are necessary to cleanse our hearts and minds of the junk that we treasure so much.  That is why Isaiah thinks of adversity and affliction as necessary ingredients of life.  They serve to show us what is essential.  God promises us that our physical and spiritual needs will be taken care of, He will have compassion on us in our need.  What if we lose our lives on earth in doing God’s will?  That is what happened to Jesus, and God’s love shone through in his resurrection, the greatest gift to human beings He could give. 

The question for us is whether we will accept the gift God offers us all, whether we will reorder our lives to walk in the way that God points out to each one of us when we ask Him.

As one who has stumbled innumerable times on this year’s Lenten journey, clutched my idols and images tightly to myself and refused to let go, and not loved God with all my heart nor my neighbor as myself – I know that my salvation depends not on what I have done or will do in the future.  My salvation is totally undeserved and depends on God’s great mercy and love, and on the grace of our Lord Jesus. 

Help me, God, to trust and believe in you alone.  I cry out for help.  Show me the way, Lord.  I want to walk with you.