Meditations on Good Friday...(1)

I must confess something: I've never really understood today. I've never known how to feel. Today the "X" on the calendar pierces the heart of history. Today people all around the world will allow themselves to have nails driven though their hands. They will walk the streets of their hometowns whipping themselves. Others will sit in dark rooms and chant chants that have been chanted for hundreds and hundreds of years by thousands of nameless faces.

...

But most of us will just go to work like we usually do. I always have. I know our Canadian brethren will take the day off, but I don't think I ever saw any of them in any parades. Perhaps I'm displaying ignorance. I'm sure someone will tell me.

...

I think I always had the sense that I was supposed to be somber. Or respectful. (Shrug). I don't really know. I don't know that I've ever been instructed differently.

Tonight, I'll go to meeting and sing songs of worship & lament. Songs that praise the greatness of God and acknowledge the singularity of His sacrifice. Songs that draw our eyes to the cross. And we will collectively meditate on the crucifixion. But key to my confession is this: it's hard for me to appropriately recognize the tragedy because I have already put my confidence in His raising back to life. His resurrection.

...