How Low Can You Go?


 

It amazes me that the lower we get the more we find almighty God below us. There are no depths he won’t sink to in order to lift us up, if we will just raise our voice.

Think about the depths of human experience, the moral mess we can wallow in. So deep we think we’ll never get free, never get cleaned up, never know we are loved in spite of the mud. And underneath us there we find the degradation of the cross of Christ. That Jesus came as vulnerable, so that our muck could be washed off.

Think about how we suffer and hurt. Spiritual and physical. Again, there’s the cross, and the agony of driven nails through bone and sinew and splinters. The agony of a mocking crown to pierce the skin. The suffering of separation from the one he loved so dearly, so that we might be loved.

Think again about the wounds we carry. From family, friends, the church. Those who have betrayed and left us wanting. There is God again, deserted and friendless before the night is out, sold for silver, scarred for eternity.

Think about our moods and feelings, the swings from high to low, then lower until we lug them around like an anchor. Then go where Jesus wept and begged for the cross to pass. From glory to despondency in a heartbeat.

Think about the shame, of never being good enough, of the ridicule of others. Then look on Jesus on the cross, mocked and spat at. We can’t get under him. There is no low too low that we won’t find he’s gone before us.

The love that sinks to the depths of itself so that we might be raised. A love that disregards itself so that we might be regarded.

There are no depths unreachable. No depths uncharted. You are not out of reach.

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