The Way Of The Barbaric

Well I was shocked. I don't know why I was shocked I shouldn't be any more, but I was. I am presently reading a book called The Barbarian Way. (Thanks Chris). And in the second chapter I was kind of stopped in my tracks by the authors take on some verses that I have read a hundred times before. I could quote them, I just obviously hadn't thought about them previously. It was from Matthew 11:2-6. (When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.")
The author was talking about a Jesus I don't understand very well. A Jesus definitely not of my making. John who grew up as a close cousiin with him, who knew while still in the womb that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
John who stood for him, lived a crazy life eating locusts and honey (neither of my favorite dishes) in order to be the voice of the one crying in the wilderness - "prepare ye the way for the Lord", baptized Him and saw the Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove. John, who was at that very moment suffering in prison for that life of obedience, just is a little bit faithless and needed some confirmation, or even affirmation that it will all work out in the end. And what was the reply - STUFF HE ALREADY KNEW! He'd seen and heard of the miracles, but right now he was in need of a miracle. And in that place of pain and anxiety comes this word. "Blessed is the one who doesn't fall away on account of me." In other words - I can rescue you. But I won't. But if you stand firm, even in this, you will be blessed.
It seems like in the last month I have seen so many examples of this in the lives of people around me. They seem to be going through incredible hurts and massive amounts of pain, one thing after the other. Even stranger is, it seems to be people that all love God so much, and I think how will they bare up under it.

The strain is too much, and I cry out to God to pull them out of it, and still the painful situations seem to continue. And then I read this chapter, which I read and reread. And the author reiterated what I already knew, but with an example that shocked my socks off. I had never thought of Jesus, purposefully, not working a miraculous rescue in the life of someone that He loved and who loved Him. All the stories I had thought of before (in regards to God leading those that love Him through times of intense painful testing) were old testament, and seem to be a part of God that was history. The part of God that was ordering the wiping out of a nation, of the death of evil men.
But in The Barbarian Way, it reminded me. Jesus is God, God is unchanging. He wants us to have lives full of meaning, not full of fun in the sun and pina colada's brought to us by Cabana boys in the South Pacific somewhere.
Although he does love to lavish blessing on us, He also loves for us to run to Him with arms wide open. Hard to do when carrying a Pina Colada. Much easier to do when we are afraid, or worried, or in pain and needing a hand to hold.
I know last year was one of the most painful I've known, and I know in that time I felt more loved by God than ever before. It is true. Blessed is the one that doesn't fall away, when trials come, when God leads you on a narrow path that seems to have briars on both sides, and people shooting arrows from above, while walking barefoot on broken glass. To follow through the pain, and be able to say in the midst. Blessed be your name.