We Are Not Droids

We Are Not Droids

When Being Fully Human Meets The Life Of Jesus

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

You Should Be Handling This Better?

One of the more disheartening things I hear from God's beloved children is their self-disappointment for not handling life better.

“I should be dealing with this better.” “I should be over this by now.” “I shouldn't be this afraid.” “I just need to have more faith.”

Somewhere we picked up the idea that following Jesus would make us Teflon-coated Christians, where pain still happens but somehow shouldn't stick.

Jesus never promised us that.

Jesus Was Fully Human

Jesus wept when Lazarus died, even knowing resurrection was coming. He felt compassion, disappointment, exhaustion, anguish, and grief. None of those emotions diminished His relationship with His Father.

Those emotions revealed His humanity.

Maybe becoming more like Jesus doesn't mean feeling less. With His life within us, we are finally free to experience all of life without having to pretend we're unaffected by it.

We can hurt and still be healing. We can grieve and still have hope. We can be frightened and still know we are held.

Two Promises

Jesus gave us two promises in the same breath: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We tend to like the second one better...

But He gave us both.

This isn't heaven yet. We aren't in Kansas. People we love die. Relationships hurt. Bodies fail. Dreams sometimes break, and there will be days when tears come more easily than answers.

Yet none of those places are absent of His presence.

Never Alone In It

The Good News isn't that Jesus removes all the pain from our lives. It's that He has joined Himself to us so completely that there is no pain we will ever walk through alone.

Christ, who is our life, lives within us. His love meets us in our grief rather than asking us to get over it, and His hope holds us when our own strength feels small.

You don't have to become less human to follow Jesus.

You are free to be fully human while discovering that every tear, every loss, every joy, and every uncertain tomorrow is now being lived with Him.

We are not droids. We are beloved sons and daughters learning that being held by Love doesn't mean we never hurt; it means we never hurt alone.

Reflection

Where have I been expecting myself to “handle life better”?

What emotion have I been judging instead of allowing Abba to meet me within it?

What would it mean to let Jesus walk with me exactly where I am today?

Prayer

Abba Father, free me from pretending I should be stronger than I am. Let me experience all of life knowing I am completely loved and never alone. Amen.