Guts

 

I(Jesus) Came So...

I know how you feel.   Words I only speak rarely.  I've heard them given as token comfort. There was no comfort when I don't perceive a common experience. These words only comfort when the same or very similar experience is apparent.  I reserve these words for occasions when my gut tells me I can relate, share, bond, minister.

 

Here's a fragmented photo of my most recent celebration as a breast cancer survivor. (18 years and counting, thanks to God.)  No diagnosis  is the same but some of our reactions can be.  I do share these with those who have an inkling.  (My adorable assistant in this  photo holding the 8 fingers to add to my 10, didn't have a clue as to her purpose in the photo. Thanks be to God!)  My husband and son definitely are survivors in their own way..  They journeyed through that season with me.  They  understand and share the importance of the photo commemoration.

I'm moving on in my blog journey of The Abundant  Life and  my meditation of the fraction of  verse 10 of John 10, "I came so they might have Life and have it abundantly".(At the rate I'm writing, I'll understand Abundant Life when Jesus comes back.!)

When I was a child a local religious organization had outreach TV commercials that opened with the phrase "The word for the day is...."  (made quite the impression if I'm reminded after nearly 60 years!) The word for today is Incarnation.  A dictionary would define this big theological word as "a person who embodies in the flesh...."  Remember Joseph's dream when he was told Mary would  give birth to a son who would be called Emmanuel which means God with us. Matthew 1: 23.

My brain attempts to comprehend this impressive word, Incarnation, as God slipped into human flesh so our limited human brains could just begin to understand the mystery of relationship with God.  He came in such a way so I'd know He knows.

I had a colleague who experienced a horrible family loss.  Her family thought a trip would help.  Her grief encompassed her. Our feeble attempts to minister missed the mark.   She needed the ones who shared and understood her tremendous loss.   The decision was made that she should fly home.  I volunteered to drive her to the airport.

 

As we drove she shared some details of the tragedy.   I could not imagine the pain and depth of her misery.  My gut told me I shared no such experience.  My role was to listen, let her talk and get her safely on her way to people who could comfort her. I'd delivered her to the gate for her return home.  I got in my car and drove to the nearest fast food stop.  My thought was a cold drink.  My gut was signaling---I needed to throw up.  Her bits of grief and misery shared in the past hour hit me in the guts.

 

Jesus' Incarnation reveals the depth of God's compassion. God, Himself, revealed His compassion by being in the flesh.  He felt deep compassion for the widow whose only son had died (see Luke 7:13).  The Greek word for the day is "splagchnizomai".  I  won't try to use it in a sentence. It denotes a depth of emotion which comes from the bowels, the guts, really,  really, deep. Gut feelings are as deep as you can get- gut feelings. (In Biblical times the stomach was considered the seat of emotion.)  On a gut level, Jesus knows, even when we think no one else does.  His compassion for our plights is deep, splaghnizomai deep, gut-wrenching compassion.

 

God absolutely understands.  Jesus wore the flesh of man as God Himself.  Hence my "AHA' verses in Hebrews:

 

“For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.”

Hebrews 4:15 AMP

https://www.bible.com/1588/heb.4.15. 

 

“Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment].”

Hebrews 4:16 AMP

https://www.bible.com/1588/heb.4.16.amp

 

 Only God can know how we feel.  Take comfort, friends,  when no one knows how it feels, you are never alone.  God, absolutely and completely, knows. and He is the source of compassion, straight from the gut.

 

 

G od

U nderstands

T otally