Soul Sister Time

              St. John of the Cross drew a sketch of Jesus on the cross looking down from heaven—from Gods perspective.  Most renderings of the cross are straight on—like a photographer capturing a moment in time.  Rarely, you see a painting from the foot of the cross, but I cannot recall a sketch or a painting from the perspective of either one of the thieves who were literally hanging on their crosses to the left and to the right. Imagine how Jesus looked to them.  Was Jesus a complete stranger to them before that dreadful day?  Was what they knew about Jesus merely the jail gossip blabbered in the holding cell as they awaited their previously determined executions?  Were they inpatient about getting the miserable existences over with because some guy’s fate was being considered by Pilate himself?  The guy in questions hadn’t even done anything truly criminal they say, and seemed like a...

               The cross has the answers to all of life’s problems.  Perhaps the lament from the cross is the greatest example for us.  It is absurd to believe that our lives on earth should contain only goodness and joy.  We live in a world created by love and goodness but corrupted by sin.  Our DNA demands love from a fallen world, and we are stunned when it does not provide what we are seeking.                We are looking to the world for the love that is only sustained through a relationship with the Creator. So many of us tear apart our own lives in our efforts to make life work without the love of God.  I find it is impossible to connect with God’s love if I do not learn the healing power of lament.  That momentary darkness that Jesus agonized over from the cross was misunderstood by the crowds.  When ...

            God wanted it to be completely clear that Jesus was placed on the cross in the middle of two criminals receiving their just punishment for how they had lived their lives.  Their crimes had brought them to Golgatha—the place of the skull.  It was the garbage heap of the town.  It was a place meant for those who lived their lives for themselves and ignored the laws of community.  Their deathbeds were crosses with no loved ones gathering around them.  Their personal choices in life had led them to the crosses on which they would die.  Both criminals found themselves nailed to crosses, experiencing one of the most excruciating deaths one could die.             Into their predicament came Jesus.  He was nailed to a cross just like them.  They knew Jesus was the reason all these extra crowds have come to their crucifixion sc...