It torments our thoughts, pollutes our feelings, and covers us with a blanket of shame that can feel suffocating.
It breaks down our identity, clouds our sense of self.
It lies to us, tricks us, and confuses us.
It’s downright brutal.
It sets up fires in the basement of our hearts and demands that we feed it day and night.
The effects slowly creep into our no hearts and minds and become darn near impossible to snuff out.
Its embers are so hot they can burn holes clean through our souls.
The fire beckons us to come close.
It’s as if the flames are begging to burn us up.
They echo together, “You aren’t enough”.
We cling desperately to the ladder, frantic to get out of the basement.
If only we could climb the stairs and find our footing.
We fight but we are weary.
We fall, landing in the blistering heat of agony.
Our spirits crushed by the scorching flames of heartbreak and sorrow.
Eventually it becomes hard to breathe.
The smoke invades our lungs.
Soot covers everything we see.
Somewhere in the rubble we lose our hope.
We succumb to the heat.
The fire suffocates any trace of life.
It’s a grueling fight over life and death.
Jesus knows the depth of searing pain that we suffer.
He knows the flames that tear right through our heart,
breaking us wide open.
He knows what it is to be wounded.
He knows what it is to be marred by someone else's sin.
He bore our sin on His back in the form of the cross, carrying us even unto death.
His basement was the cross and our scorning was the flame.
He too had His heart shattered.
Even Jesus needed His Father to navigate the cross.
He too has felt the anguish of the world’s harm.
He loved us unto death despite our rejection.
He walked straight through the fire just to get to us.
Death doesn't get the final say.
Jesus rose again on the third day.
His life blood pulses through our veins.
We are freed from the clutches of death.
Hope has come. We don’t have to live in the basement anymore. .
His greatest pain became God's greatest glory.
Could it be that our greatest sorrows can become His greatest glory too?
