Entering Holy Week

Lord, You told your disciples: "If someone wants to follow Me, they must deny themselves, carry their cross and follow Me." In Your Name we pray: Lord, help us to take up our cross and follow you.

You stood before Pilate. You were condemned to death, while Your Words were rejected and Your Innocence scorned.

Protect us from rejecting Your Word, which is full of truth and redemption.

You carried your cross because You loved us, because you loved the whole world.

Help us to carry our cross, because we love you and we want to love the whole world like You do.

The weight of the cross was the weight of our sins, those sins that make us stumble and fall.

In our weakness we come to You for strength.

Even though You were suffering, You still reached out and cared for your mother.

Please make it so that the cross that we bear doesn’t hinder us from seeing the people around us.

When You struggled to carry your cross, they forced a passer-by to carry it for You.Make us willing, like Simon, to carry the burdens of those around us that are suffering.

Others also risked standing by You.

Strengthen our faith so that we are able to care for our brothers and sisters in You.

The burden of sin rested heavily on Your Shoulders while You stumbled along the way of the cross.

Forgive, Lord, the sin that makes us stumble and fall.

Your suffering on the way to Golgotha made the woman of Jerusalem weep.

Give that our suffering in this life may be taken up into your suffering on the way of the cross.

The full burden of our sins shattered You.

Please do not let us continue in our sin, but cause in us regret and faith.

Exposed and mocked, You endured the humiliation without protesting.

Make us humble in everything that we do and experience daily.

Nailed to the cross, You took your place between the condemned.

Please be with us as sinners, and bring us with You into paradise through our faith.

When your sacrifice was complete, You surrendered Yourself into the hands of the Father.

Keep us always close to your cross and your death, now and in the hour of our death.

True friends and dedicated women took care of your body.

Make us true and dedicated in our care for your body here on earth.

In the grave You were laid down, but from that grave You were resurrected.

Be the Lord of the resurrection for us as well as everyone else that belongs to You.

Lord Jesus, because of the cross and your suffering we were absolved, our sins were washed away and our relationship with You was restored. And so we thank You for the cross and for the depth of your love for us. Help us to carry our cross in this world, to follow You until we walk with You into the Kingdom of God, where You reign together with the Father and the Holy Spirit – one God, now and forever more.

Amen.

All the very best of us

Captain’s Log: It is now Day 50 000 without Sarel, and things are starting to look dreary. OK…it’s actually Day 7…but definitely Day 50 000 in emotional time! His absence – except for a short Skype chat daily – has ingrained in me just how important the people in our lives are.

“A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” – Lois Wyse

Not because they change the order of a day, the circumstances we live in, or the things that have to happen; but because, without them, nothing has true meaning. For what good is a photo if you have no one to show it to? What fun is a silly happening with no one to laugh about it with? How deep can any experience be when you don’t have those special people who you only need to make eye contact with to see and know that they truly understand?

And here I am not talking about the casual relationships we all have – which also involve a level of care. I am talking about those relationships with history and weight. Those people who know every fibre of your being - every joy, every dream, every flaw, every tick and every embarrassing moment. Those people who have decided to throw their lives in with yours. Not because you are perfect, not even always because you deserve it, but because the warts and all journey with you is worth more than having no journey.

It is because they know our hearts, our passions and our dreams that these things remain alive - they know the song in your heart, AND can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Something is meaningful because you are able to share it with someone who knows the meaning it has for you - his or her understanding, his or her witness, gives validation. And, when we are not validated, we become disconnected and lonely, floating through life. We lose our ability to give and to receive. We become shells of the people we are meant to be. Remember - everyone hears what you say, friends listen to what you say, and best friends listen to what you don't say.

 “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” – William Shakespeare

To every one of you who have been this friend for me, who have rekindled my inner fire more times than I can count, thank you does not begin to describe my feelings…but thank you all the same. Thank you for always being willing to gather up the pieces of me I lose, or that get chipped off, along the way. Thank you for opening up possibilities in me I would never have known existed had you not decided to stay in my life.

You are the reason that I am able to live and mean it. You are the reason that I know joy. You make me significant. 

The desire of my heart is to be even a smidgeon of that for you. 

We are family!

"This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It's little...and broken...but still good. Yeah, still good." - Lilo & Stitch

None of us fall from the sky. We are all created. This means we are part of a family - that family might be only one other person, but a family we still are. 

Now, some of us are lucky enough to experience wonderful and functioning families from birth...which will still leave us scarred and traumatized in one way or a few others...because life is what it is and even the most beautiful souls aren't perfect...

But a lot of people do not even have this better beginning. For them, family is what breaks you, what hates you, what uses you up and then spits you out. And becoming healthy and whole involves setting strict boundaries with the family you were born into. Which can leave you feeling alone...unwanted...

The miracle? Families aren't just made, they can also be chosen! It has even been said that our capacity for friendship is God's way of making up for our families ;)

What we know to be "family" - people biologically connected - is a "family", yes. But it is only one type. "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof." - Richard Bach

"Family" means having people who are participants in, and witnesses to, your life. "Family" is people who stand by you, who hold you, when everything goes to hell. "Family" is to always have someone to love and someplace to go. If your blood is where that family starts - you are blessed. If you cannot have that - all is not lost.

You can find your family, and it can mean just as much as all of us think blood should. In fact, once you broaden your perspective of "family", you might just find that they have surrounded you without you noticing. 
Let's stop feeling alone and/or abandoned; let's relish the family we have - however it might have come to be!