During Lent, and especially during Holy Week, Christ's sacrifice and love for us is often brought up.
They are two very beautiful things, and thinking of them always brings tears to my eyes.
I mean, just think. John 15:13 says "no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." The greatness of love is self-sacrifice. That's kind of hard to accept, right? It's hard to live so sacrificially. Honestly, I have a hard time living out that verse, especially literally. Lay down my life? But I have everything planned and "laying down my life" isn't part of that! It's so easy to be resistant to God's will just because we have things planned OUR way. This is something I definitely need to work on in my spiritual life. I'm in my junior year of high school and taking all college classes through a special high school program. The looming threat of choosing my major and applying to colleges is approaching very, very fast. A little too fast. For the majority of this year, I have been focusing so much on looking at my plans, that I've completely forgotten to pray to God and ask Him what He wants me to do. It's hard to let go of control and put it in His hands, because I know that what He plans may not be exactly what I want.
But that's what Jesus did. That's what His Passion was. It was Him becoming "passive" to the will of God. And yeah, becoming passive meant sacrificing himself and laying down his life for his friends. That's SO powerful to me. God, God, chose to lay down his life for me. For me. How amazing is that? This is GOD we're talking about. He's infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, the fullness of love and joy and goodness, and He takes on the weakness of man (because admit it, we're pretty weak) and sacrifices Himself for me! For that girl who was Mormon but saw the beauty of the Mass through her mother. Who came to the Catholic faith older but has embraced it with arms wide open. The girl who is stubborn, bossy, opinionated, and a little crazy, but also determined, giving, bursting with emotion and full of talent that He can use.
Every time I think of what Jesus did for me, I can feel the tears well up in my eyes and my chest and throat fill up with raw emotion. And that's okay. It's a perfectly understandable and good reaction to what He's done for us. He loves me. He loves me so much that He did all of that for me. For all of us.
And I can never thank Him enough.
They are two very beautiful things, and thinking of them always brings tears to my eyes.
I mean, just think. John 15:13 says "no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." The greatness of love is self-sacrifice. That's kind of hard to accept, right? It's hard to live so sacrificially. Honestly, I have a hard time living out that verse, especially literally. Lay down my life? But I have everything planned and "laying down my life" isn't part of that! It's so easy to be resistant to God's will just because we have things planned OUR way. This is something I definitely need to work on in my spiritual life. I'm in my junior year of high school and taking all college classes through a special high school program. The looming threat of choosing my major and applying to colleges is approaching very, very fast. A little too fast. For the majority of this year, I have been focusing so much on looking at my plans, that I've completely forgotten to pray to God and ask Him what He wants me to do. It's hard to let go of control and put it in His hands, because I know that what He plans may not be exactly what I want.
But that's what Jesus did. That's what His Passion was. It was Him becoming "passive" to the will of God. And yeah, becoming passive meant sacrificing himself and laying down his life for his friends. That's SO powerful to me. God, God, chose to lay down his life for me. For me. How amazing is that? This is GOD we're talking about. He's infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, the fullness of love and joy and goodness, and He takes on the weakness of man (because admit it, we're pretty weak) and sacrifices Himself for me! For that girl who was Mormon but saw the beauty of the Mass through her mother. Who came to the Catholic faith older but has embraced it with arms wide open. The girl who is stubborn, bossy, opinionated, and a little crazy, but also determined, giving, bursting with emotion and full of talent that He can use.
Every time I think of what Jesus did for me, I can feel the tears well up in my eyes and my chest and throat fill up with raw emotion. And that's okay. It's a perfectly understandable and good reaction to what He's done for us. He loves me. He loves me so much that He did all of that for me. For all of us.
And I can never thank Him enough.
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