Cerebral Series Part 2: Was Jesus _______?

May 15, 2012 By 1 Comment

Jesus
If you Google “Was Jesus….?, you get back:
Was Jesus black, gay, real, Jewish, married, a carpenter, a socialist….all very shallow, surface questions.

It has been my experience that people shy away from examining the humanness of Jesus too closely. Maybe we are afraid of being sacrligious, considering he was also God and all. Or, maybe we don’t like to consider how many aspects of Jesus were remarkably like us.

I have heard people get angry when asked if they thought Jesus might have suffered from the teen plague of acne.
Really trivial, but if one travels down this line of thought very long, youn can reach some questions that appear alot more important.

For example, if Jesus was indeed fully human, could he have suffered from a human issue like a brain chemical imbalance? Or, do we assume he was born with a healrhy brain just because he was God? And if he did have an unhealthy brain as most humans have for at least some periods in their lives, what free choice did he have in making right decisions, and how then are we to relate to God when we are supposed to be like Jesus yet our brains may not be working right?

Another question that makes people uncomfortable….Jesus’ sexuality. We tend to approach the Jesus in the gospels in a neuter fashion, I think because we are afraid of highlighting Jesus with the belief that men “think about sex all the time. I don’t personally like thinking of him that way. However, I desperately wanr to belive that he was fully human as I am so that I know he really understands how I feel. Obviously I don’t believe Jesus ever acted on this portion of his humanity, or sinned in any way with regard to it. But,sometimes I wonder how much Jesus can really relate to each of us and our struggle to love well when he has never been intimate with anyone as in marriage? He has always had some measure of distance between himself and other people.

I don’t understand Jesus, or the mystery of being fully human and fully man, but I guess I’m not the first person with this problem. Still, I believe that “there is only Christ. He is everything.” Somehow in a way I can’t completely fathom, he made things right with God, and I am accepted by him just as I am, constant brain misfires and all.

Filed Under: Christian Living, Depression/Anxiety, Healthy Living Tagged With:

One of Those Days….

March 8, 2011 By 1 Comment

It’s only one o’clock in the afternoon!

A sick toddler, a nine week old with a double ear infection, and a preschooler who has already managed to get in major trouble four times in the hour and a half since he’s been home from school…and 40 minutes of that was spent strapped in a carseat!

My dining room wall now has milk painted on it, the boys’ bedroom is now lacking curtains because the curtain rod was bent beyond repair, snot and baby barf spot my upholstery, and my car is coated with debris including story books, Starbucks cookie crumbs, and coats haphazardly tossed on the floor.

I’m trying really hard not to lose my patience, and determining to look at the humorous side of it all…..and blame most of it on the genetics passed down from my husband. :)

As I look back on the wall in my house that got painted in water last night and milk this afternoon, I see the reminder that I need for today:

Jesus has all I need to make it through the day successfully…I don’t have to be drained, stressed, or at my wit’s end. His well of patience, love, and wisdom is overflowing for me if I just keep turning to him, and his grace pours on me even when I forget to ask for his help.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: ,

I Am Seen and Known

February 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

downtown_florence
There are approximately 6,900,521,878 people in the world right now. 

I am a rather obscure, unimportant, easily forgettable sample of that huge set.

Still, God takes notice of me. The petty things, trivial issues, fears, unanswered questions in my life…none of these sneak past his eyes.

He sees my heart, knows its deepest parts, how it beats differently than every other heart in the world, and yet beats the same.

How do I know with certainty that he cares about me, is concerned with the things that concern me, is interested in me and who I have been and who I am to become?

Because he sent the One dearest to him, the One who was perfect always, the One who is most beautiful, the One who is most treasured…..and that is not One to be wasted. 

The life and death and resurrection of Jesus is paramount, and God would not have sent such a valuable sacrifice unless he saw each of us as valuable enough to warrant it.

And despite the 6,900,521,878 in the world, each vying for God’s attention, how do I know that he will come through for me?  Because he has done it time and again…he has never once failed me.

He will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer.  Isa. 30:19

Seeking to fully live,

Filed Under: Christian Living, Depression/Anxiety Tagged With:

Jesus Has Borne All That I Will Ever Suffer

February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

  />Cross in the Wichitas

“Jesus has borne all that we will ever suffer….”

I heard this quote today and it stopped me in my tracks.  Why, I’m not entirely sure.  I’ve read the Scriptures that say Christ has redeemed us from the Curse and I’ve heard since I was a child about Jesus’ work on the cross, but this particular phrasing really resonated with me.

In her new book, Ann Voskamp describes how just naming something can be huge, relieving, peace-giving…in the same way, there’s something similar in just wanting to be understood.  When my husband and I argue, I’m usually more happy if he just understands my position, even if he doesn’t agree with it.

I wonder if the constant feeling of not being understood is why so many people are prone to bitterness, complaining, and rehashing of events over and over.  Maybe they have never felt that what they’ve gone through was truly grasped and understood by anyone else, and in a desperate attempt to truly be heard they feel the need to display their hurt and discontent readily and unreservedly.

Maybe this is why I have a hard time letting things go.  I want to be understood.  I hate it more than anything when I leave a situation and feel like someone believed a wrong impression of me, doubted my good intentions, or questioned my motives because of misinformation.  And so I scramble to defend myself.

My need for understanding is why I will prolong conflict with people close to me….not because I like to argue, but because I must have some sense that they “get” where I’m coming from, that my arguments are validated, that I am proved valuable and of worth.

But all this is unnecessary….Jesus has borne my hurts, my curses, my fears…..He alone understands

….when people judge me based on misperceptions

….when I’m terrified to sleep at night because of threatening panic attacks

…when I struggle with old regrets and shame of things that can never be changed

…when the fog of depression clouds reality

…when thoughtless words or actions from loved ones sting

…when I feel most alone.

He has suffered each of these with me, and understands when no one else does.  And in his enduring the Cross and all the suffering that came with it for the joy that was to come, I can cling to him and his understanding with the hope that I too will see joy.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesseses….”   Hebrews 4:15

Seeking to fully live,

Filed Under: Christian Living, Depression/Anxiety, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,