Life Less Ordinary for the week of March 16, 2009

You know, I've been thinking a lot about Jesus lately. It is the Lenten season, after all. It’s interesting, how Jesus came down to be with us…he knew there was no way we could save ourselves. We forget sometimes that Christianity isn't about what we do. It's about grace.

"For Jesus is the descent of God to our lives, just as they are, not the ascent
of our lives to God, hoping he might approve when he sees how hard we try."
--Eugene Peterson

Jesus comes to meet us where we are. In our own slop and filth. He stretched the tight skin of human existence over his own glory, retaining the essence of everything we could never aspire to be, because he knew that we could not rise from the ashes of our own accord.

I'm not talking about his death or resurrection or his love. Yes, he came down because he loved us. Yes, he died for us because that was the price that had to be paid. Yes, he rose from the grave to overcome death for us. But he had to come down in order to do that.

Why? Why must he come down? Why did he have to grow inside Mary's belly, cry and poop and scrape his knees, grow, learn, laugh, and mourn, just like us? It's more than the mere fact that he wanted to relate to us. It's because there was no way to bring us out of our demise without being in it himself. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray…[and] he was lead like a lamb to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53. That’s why.

Look at the homeless. The impoverished. The starving children. The abandoned and abused. How do we help them? We come down. We get out of our own comfort zones and meet them on their level, just as they are. We don't require anything of them in the respects of being "good enough." Mother Teresa didn't help the poor of Calcutta by creating a place for herself and making everyone clean up before they entered in. She came down and got her hands dirty. She wept and she bled and she cared and she loved. And look how much of an impact she has made on the world. Helping those who are less fortunate than we is not the ascent of their lives to ours, hoping that we might approve when we see how hard they try. It's just not.

And so I challenge you to look around. See who needs a helping hand, and reach out—spiritually, physically, emotionally. We’re all broken, but through the power of Christ we can be his hands and feet.

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