I have been thinking about what can happen in our suffering.
Many times it is in our pain that we find ourselves, but even more importantly it is in our pain that God finds us. Notice I didn’t say “where we find God”. Not that we don’t find God in our pain. But all too often we ignore God in our pain and ask the question, “where was God when…?” I know I have asked that very question before. But in our pain God can find us, because it is in our pain we become vulnerable and in need of help. It is in our weakness that God becomes our strength. He even tells us that his “strength is made perfect in weakness.”
I was reading Rob Bell’s book “Drop Like Stars” the other day and he talked about how Native Americans have a tradition of leaving a blemish in at least one corner of the rug they are weaving. The reason is because they believe that’s where the spirit enters.
That got me thinking about how God works in our lives. He works in our mistakes, he works in our blemishes. And it is in our faults that God enters and goes to work.
That is why the cross means so much to us as Christians. It reminds us of our weaknesses, our blemishes.
In our blemishes is where the Spirit enters!
(“To those who believe, [the cross] is the power of God!”)
Justin Cherry 