The Prayer of St. Patrick: Christ to Comfort and restore Me
“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and who lays the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor?"
-Isaiah 51:12-13
If you remember back in January I highlighted some key points in the book "Radical" that we possess and are given the fruits of the spirit. Many times when we ask for things in our lives, God gives us His Spirit. I stressed that we should not miss that in life, because so many of us do! We go through a trial and we cry out for God to deliver us and when we are still in the midst of the trial we assume God has not answered our prayer, when really HE HAS! He always, always, ALWAYS answers prayers, it's not always yes, which leads people to say he did not answer. When we cry out to God in the midst of circumstance asking for help and comfort and understanding, God gives us the Spirit of Comfort and understanding.
Comfort and restoration are closely related in meaning. To be comforted is not to simply be made to feel better, or even be healed of pain and sorrow, it is to be equipped to face the next struggle. The object of being comforted is to be restored; to be strengthened. We must also remember that restoration in not an exact return to things as they were.
Poet Wendell Berry reminds us in a poem "The Slip" a deeper understanding of what our physical and spiritual health entails if we are to be restored. It reflects on how comfort and restoration come in taking a long view of human and divine process.
From this excerpt of the poem there are 3 truths about comfort and restoration.
1. There is nothing to do but learn, wait, and return to work on what remains.
There is a time to wait on the Lord. In that time of waiting and being still comfort and restoration are able to take place. It is in the times that we are still listening for God to speak to us that we learn the most too, enabling us to go back and work on what needs to be worked on in our lives, and around us.
2. Seed will sprout in the scar.
This sentence speaks the most to me. That something good can come from what scars us both physically, and mentally. The image of seed sprouting in scar provides a practical image of hope that defies false comfort. Cutting can be a false comfort, something that I struggled with, and still do from time to time. But I'm thankful that Christ Jesus my Comforter comes to me with mercy and calls me away from false comforts and into new opportunities for growth in Him. Even though scars last a lifetime, they remind us that the past is real, however the new life that comes will not obliterate, but remind us continually of the death that occasioned its coming.
3. Though death is in the healing, it will heal.
Comfort is costly, it comes at the cost of death. Not only the death that brought on the grief, but in what must die in us in order to open our hearts to the growing involved in restoration.
Christ will comfort us, "All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path we tread, gives us grace for every trail and feeds us with the living bread" as the hymn sings. Not only does he comfort us, but he will do it through us to so we may show it to others. As members of His body we are called to comfort and care for one another; to do the work of restoration. This is how we are equipped. Ours are the hands he uses to reach out.
Christ to Comfort and restore.
-Isaiah 51:12-13
If you remember back in January I highlighted some key points in the book "Radical" that we possess and are given the fruits of the spirit. Many times when we ask for things in our lives, God gives us His Spirit. I stressed that we should not miss that in life, because so many of us do! We go through a trial and we cry out for God to deliver us and when we are still in the midst of the trial we assume God has not answered our prayer, when really HE HAS! He always, always, ALWAYS answers prayers, it's not always yes, which leads people to say he did not answer. When we cry out to God in the midst of circumstance asking for help and comfort and understanding, God gives us the Spirit of Comfort and understanding.
Comfort and restoration are closely related in meaning. To be comforted is not to simply be made to feel better, or even be healed of pain and sorrow, it is to be equipped to face the next struggle. The object of being comforted is to be restored; to be strengthened. We must also remember that restoration in not an exact return to things as they were.
Poet Wendell Berry reminds us in a poem "The Slip" a deeper understanding of what our physical and spiritual health entails if we are to be restored. It reflects on how comfort and restoration come in taking a long view of human and divine process.
The maker moves
in the unmade, stirring the water until
it clouds, dark beneath the surface,
stirring and darkening the soul until pain
perceives new possibility. There is nothing
to do but learn and wait, return to work
on what remains. Seed will sprout in the scar.
Though death is in the healing, it will heal.
From this excerpt of the poem there are 3 truths about comfort and restoration.
1. There is nothing to do but learn, wait, and return to work on what remains.
There is a time to wait on the Lord. In that time of waiting and being still comfort and restoration are able to take place. It is in the times that we are still listening for God to speak to us that we learn the most too, enabling us to go back and work on what needs to be worked on in our lives, and around us.
2. Seed will sprout in the scar.
This sentence speaks the most to me. That something good can come from what scars us both physically, and mentally. The image of seed sprouting in scar provides a practical image of hope that defies false comfort. Cutting can be a false comfort, something that I struggled with, and still do from time to time. But I'm thankful that Christ Jesus my Comforter comes to me with mercy and calls me away from false comforts and into new opportunities for growth in Him. Even though scars last a lifetime, they remind us that the past is real, however the new life that comes will not obliterate, but remind us continually of the death that occasioned its coming.
3. Though death is in the healing, it will heal.
Comfort is costly, it comes at the cost of death. Not only the death that brought on the grief, but in what must die in us in order to open our hearts to the growing involved in restoration.
Christ will comfort us, "All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path we tread, gives us grace for every trail and feeds us with the living bread" as the hymn sings. Not only does he comfort us, but he will do it through us to so we may show it to others. As members of His body we are called to comfort and care for one another; to do the work of restoration. This is how we are equipped. Ours are the hands he uses to reach out.
Christ to Comfort and restore.
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