Journey to the Cross 
Pause
Poet Mary Oliver asks: where may the extraordinary happen? Not usually “among crowds, in drawing rooms, among comforts and pleasures” … but instead on “the edge.”
in Upstream: Selected Essays (2016)
Take a deep breath and turn your gaze to the Extraordinary of Holy Week.
You might have to look away from the action and towards the edge to find it, but it is there, ready to meet you.
Listen
Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’
“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”
John 13:31b-35
Think
Fred Rogers once said in an interview with Christianity Today that “the underlying message of [my show] is that if somebody cares about you, it’s possible that you’ll care about others, too… Knowing you are special can lead you to help create a world in which your neighbors know they are special, too.”
Ultimately, wasn’t this Jesus’ vision for us, too? Once we begin to believe in God’s love for us, we can’t help but to be changed. It changes how we view ourselves and how we care for our neighbors, too. It’s a Love that never leaves us the same.
The question is, do we really believe God loves us? If we lived each day not only knowing, but truly believing in the depth of God’s love for us, and if we brought that truth down into our day-to-day lives, what difference would that make in us? What difference would that make in our world?
Mary Alice Birdwhistell
Pray
God whose love will never let me go, help me to believe in the depth of your love for me. May it never leave me the same. And because of it, may I never leave the world as I know it the same. Amen.
Go
As you go about this Holy Week,
don’t be afraid to go to the edge
of what seems most ordinary
and comfortable
and familiar.
Because if you pay attention,
you will find that
extraordinary Love is hidden
in the most unexpected places around you,
and even within you.
And once you encounter it,
this Love will
never leave you the same.
May you have the courage to show up this week.
May you live fully in each fragile moment.
And may you do even the smallest things with extravagant Love.
Amen.
