Yesterday started the season of Lent for many Christians around the world. In preparation for Lent, some students helped make wooden stations of the cross that I laid out along the window seat of a well-traveled hallway in school.
As I rested each wooden station against the glass, I considered the words the students had carefully stenciled on them. The rough wood of each cross held a simple phrase etched out in black sharpie letters that bled a little into the grain. There was only enough room on the beam for a couple of words… a couple simple words with great meaning that seemed to stare back at me as I set each cross in place.
Words like:
“Was condemned.”
”Accepts cross.”
“Falls”
“Meets Mother”
“Receives help”
“Tears wiped”
And so on.
As each short phrase stared back at me, I realized something about Jesus.
Like me and like you, He needed grace too.
He needed the grace to put one foot in front of the other when the weight of what He carried became too much.
He needed the grace to stand back up when every muscle in His body wanted to collapse onto the ground and stay there.
He needed the grace of a second wind, such as the one Anne Lamott speaks about in this quote:
“But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.”
What clarity or resolution are you seeking today?
What invisible weight are you carrying?
Are you open to the grace that may not provide what you seek but instead provide what you need to move forward?
Are you open to the grace that will help keep you upright and moving on the journey to something greater?
