God’s Faithfulness

TODAY: On Mount Olive, where Jesus stood overlooking Jerusalem before entering the city, stands a lovely, tear-shaped cathedral — Dominus Flevit (The Lord wept) — in the shape of a teardrop. There is a plaque on the wall that says:

“The love of God is mourning. O unfathomable grief!
God mourns that man whom He created has strayed so far from him.Today in love, He is calling . . . Turn around and come back here today.”

Sometimes I wake in the night, anxious about tasks I have taken on. In the darkness, the responsibility feels far too big for me to handle.

Several years ago I stood in the garden of Gethsemane, among a grove of olive trees that may have been there 2,000 years ago. I was overwhelmed by thoughts about Jesus praying on that very spot the night before his crucifixion. He knew that the next day he would be turned over to Pilate and the crowds in Jerusalem. He felt the human fear of facing pain and suffering. As he prayed, “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me,” he knew the agony that awaited him the next day. He also understood the strength and courage that was available to him, and ended his prayer “not as I will, but as you will.” Despite his fear, he was willing to fulfill God’s work.

As I sat and thought about these difficult moments, I remembered a story of Martin Luther King Jr. from his autobiography. In the mid-1950s as he was leading the nonviolent protest of the treatment of African Americans in Montgomery, he was harassed by police, and he and his family were threatened and terrorized. In the middle of the night, he sat at his kitchen table and prayed: “Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering . . . And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

He then describes the moment this way: “It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: ‘Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you.

Even until the end of the world.’ . . . I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me alone. At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

The salvation offered by Christianity is not that all of our trials and troubles will be taken away, but that God will be with us through them. How often do my own fears keep me from standing up for righteousness, justice and truth? God’s faithfulness is available to me always. All I have to do is ask.

— Susan Shearouse