Got To Get Down To Get Up

Its a cycle in life.  There's a reason I don't see hardship as a bad thing.  I can mourn for things while my heart is still glad.  A subtle joy sets in when things are bad, not because of the situation but contrary to it, because of what I know and who I trust in.  Our faith wouldn't be tested if the valleys didn't exist.  In fact, a faith in God might not exist at all if a person never experiences a valley.  That's what this note is about.

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.  -Jesus in Matthew 21:44

Notice how no one escapes being broken.  Those who are never broken to pieces in this life have nothing but a fearful expectation of being crushed in the next life.  So don't regret the fact that you are broken, but be glad.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  -Jesus in Matthew 5:4

Many of the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) describe the people who come to the Lord, and some after having come to the Lord.  When someone is poor in spirit or mourning or meek there is nothing to lose.  Its these people who are desperate for a Savior, and they seek and they find.  That's why these people are blessed.  Before anyone will come to the Lord with a broken heart, a humble spirit and desperate desire to be taken, that person has to be broken - he must be down in life.  God does a work in the lowliest people to demonstrate His own power - He takes them from the lowest depths to the highest place, heaven.  That's why a person must get down - be broken - to get up.  But its not getting back up, because its not about getting back to where we were.  Its about getting up as a new person heading to a new place.  The person who never gets down in life is the most cursed person of all.  He thinks everything is fine and is therefore not desperate for God to save him.  There is no need for faith simply because there is no need.  But he who is broken is blessed.  If he puts his trust in the Lord, because there is great need for that person and therefore great reason to trust in the Most High, then God will make him anew.  He is blessed because Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  In this way Jesus turns the world upside-down.  What might seem like a blessing is truly an eternal curse, and what might seem like a curse is truly an eternal blessing.

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life  -Jesus in John 12:25