At Christchurch this summer we’re trying out various spiritual disciplines (sometimes called spiritual practices) to see which of them God will use to transform our character. The goal of any discipline is not to become excellent in the discipline, but to become excellent in something higher and deeper. You practice your golf swing merely to give you a better looking swing, but to make you a better golfer. Practicing the scales is a means by which you can become a better musician. And better music makes the world a better place. 

This week’s practice is a particular kind of praying — a simple prayer to be prayed again and again. Many people are familiar with “The Serenity Prayer” in its short form. I heartily recommend the longer form found below.  

The purpose of prayer is to connect us to God, to open a two-way channel for him to bless, guide, and correct as he sees fit. The Serenity Prayer is not an end in itself, but a means to a more effective life of loving God and neighbor.  

Pray it morning and night for the rest of the week. Let it begin to shape how you see your world: a place of limits and opportunities which require much wisdom, wisdom which God so freely grants to those who seek him. ​

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

As we follow the events that led to Jesus’ death, we have to be dismayed by the dramatic change in circumstances from Sunday to Friday. Sunday Jesus was hailed as Savior and heir apparent to the throne of David. Overnight Thursday into Friday he has been betrayed, arrested, abandoned, lied about, beaten, whipped, and mocked. Friday he was nailed to a cross for public humiliation and execution. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6–8)

Why did Jesus allow all this to happen to him? These events came as no surprise. He foresaw them, and warned his disciples four times that these things would happen to him when they went up to Jerusalem. 

Cyril of Alexandria, a theologian and bishop who died in 444 AD, give us some insight.

​
Christ’s Human Nature Had to Feel What We Feel
Only the death of the Savior could bring an end to death, and it is the same for each of the other sufferings of the flesh too. Unless he had felt dread, human nature could not have become free from dread. Unless he had experienced grief, there could have never been any deliverance from grief. Unless he had been troubled and alarmed, there would have been no escape from these feelings. 

Every one of the emotions to which human nature is liable can be found in Christ. The emotions of his flesh were aroused, not that they might gain the upper hand, as indeed they do in us, but in order that when aroused they might be thoroughly subdued by the power of the Word dwelling in the flesh, human nature as a whole thus undergoing a change for the better. Commentary on the Gospel of John 8.


These things happened because of God’s love and plan to deal not just with our sin, but with every aspect of what it means to be human. 

Thank you, Jesus, for your courage and love. Change us from the inside out by the power of your love for us. Amen.

​The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to go through the valley of the shadow of death. Paul experienced harassment, beatings, imprisonment, and shipwreck. His response:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  (2 Corinthians 4:8–12)

Why was there all this trouble in his life? He refused to stop following Jesus. Paul followed willingly wherever the Holy Spirit led him in the Roman Empire because he was convinced that God would see him through whatever God led him into. 


 New Testament scholar N. T. Wright notes:

In the present passage, Paul says he is persecuted but not abandoned; cast down but not destroyed. What he says here he says with the benefit of hindsight, but he has not forgotten that it did not feel like that when it was going on. When we read chapter 1 we discovered that at the time it really felt as though he was being crushed, abandoned and destroyed. How is this an encouragement for us when we go through persecution, temptation, suffering, bereavement, tragedy or sorrow? — (2 Corinthians For Everyone: Bible Study Guides)

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.


If today we are hard pressed, we will someday come to see we are not crushed.
If today we are perplexed, we will not despair.
If today we are persecuted, we know we are not abandoned.
If today we are struck down, take heart — we are not destroyed. 

In Christ, we lack nothing.

David’s Psalm 23 continues:

Even though I walk 
        through the darkest valley, 
    I will fear no evil,
        for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
        they comfort me. (Psalms 23:4)

Wherever there are hills there are valleys. If a shepherd is to lead the flock to the next grazing area, sooner or later there will be a valley to cross. In addition, a valley is more likely to hold water than a hillside. Valleys are inevitable, and sometimes beneficial.

There are more shadows in the valley than on the hilltop. The valley gets the sun later in the morning and loses it earlier in the evening. Depending on the climate that can be a good thing or a bad thing. 

The Good Shepherd knows his sheep, and leads them to green pastures, beside quiet waters, and sometimes into valleys. If the sheep is in a valley because he has simply wandered off from the flock and the care of the shepherd, the shepherd will seek out the sheep.

Two things to keep in mind then if we find ourselves in an emotional or spiritual valley: If this is of my own doing, the Good Shepherd is already coming for me! If on the other hand I can’t see how I might have contributed to this sorrow, this difficulty, then perhaps the Shepherd has led us here for awhile and is already nearby.

Can you trust the Jesus our Good Shepherd in this valley right now? 

    Seek the LORD while he may be found;
        call on him while he is near. (Isaiah 55:6)
​

It’s a new week! A bright, sunny, soon-to-be-warm Monday. Will this week bring trouble or peace? 

We don’t know. But we do know this: 

The LORD is our shepherd, we lack nothing.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

And though trouble may come, we can say this:

Even though we walk through the darkest valley, 
    we will fear no evil, for you are with us….

Same God, same guidance, same care. All week.
​