When you know what you are capable of

As we enter into Holy Week, I have so many thoughts swirling around.

I want to finish well this season of Lent…finish out this time of setting time aside to dig deeper…learn what God would tell me in the things I have tried to take away and the things I have chosen to add.

Even as we watched the little ones wave those sweet palm branches and sing Hosanna’s yesterday, we reeled from the news of brothers and sisters in Egypt who were slaughtered in their own church walls as they celebrated and remembered Palm Sunday.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them today <3

I am mindful of an event from my youth group days back in the 70’s.

Our leaders piled us into cars one evening of Holy Week and drove us to some even smaller town in central Kentucky where a church put on a yearly Easter pageant.

This one was different than any I had attended and took place outside the church in the street.

We watched as church members portrayed the events of the Triumphal Entry and different stories from Jesus’ last week on earth.

It was engaging to be a part of the whole thing as we stood in this crowd of others who had come to see the dramatization of the stories we all love so much.

And then the intensity of the arrest began to unfold and our near proximity got a bit uncomfortable.

Things heated up as Jesus was presented to one authority after another and by the time He stood before Pilate, it got downright chaotic.

Because, unknown to us, some of those we stood shoulder to shoulder with were actually part of the cast.

And when the familiar offer was made to choose between Jesus and Barabbas, fists pumped around and voices raised angrily….

Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

At the ripe age of 15, I loved Jesus with all my heart.

I couldn’t believe the anger around me, but I remained silent.

I was dying inside but so scared outside.

It wasn’t the first or the last time I let the roar of a crowd override my love for Christ.

It’s why I have never been too hard on Peter or the others who ran.

I know what I am capable of.

It’s why when we sing songs that declare how we will never be moved or shaken, I add a prayer that I need Him to hold me fast.

He is the solid Rock upon which I stand, but I praise Him that He also holds my feet firm on that Rock.

He knows what I am made of…what I am capable of…and so I rest on Him.

It is only by His Grace that I will be found solid and steadfast.

It is Grace that saved me and Grace that sustains me and Grace that will finish this work that He began in me

<3