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Hebrews 12
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.__
For Joy
Sarah Thebarge
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 20s, I had a mastectomy and then eight rounds of chemo. And then the cancer came back and i had four more surgeries to remove all of the cancer from my chest.
Before each of the surgeries, I walked into the operating room and laid down on a cold metal table with my arms outstretched. The nurses tied my wrists down as the anesthesia took effect, and it occurred to my sleepy brain that my body looked a lot like Jesus on the cross -- if Jesus had been a thin, scared girl with mastectomy scars and a bald head.
When the surgeries were finished and the radiation began, I had a similar experience in the radiation suite. For 30 days in a row, I walked down a long hallway, climbed onto a narrow metal table, and held out my arms while the healing beams lit up my chest. During each treatment session, I thought about Jesus laying himself down for me. I thought about the nails that impaled His wrists on the beams. Unlike me, He wasn't forced to undergo the pain out of the desperation and fear that came from facing a life threatening disease. Hebrews 12:2 says He endured all of it for the joy.
Three years before the crucifixion, when the Son of God faced temptation in the desert before starting His ministry, He made it clear that He was not operating in base human motivations, but in the divine economy of heaven. So when it came time to die, He laid himself down for me -- not for the fear, or for the fame, or for the power, but for the joy: Because he could see the beauty in one sick sinner like me finding the hope of heaven in the midst of despair, He laid himself down, stretched out His arms, and forever opened the way to the Father's heart.
HESE words
show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. "Ill weeds
grow apace." Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to
man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles;
they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and
so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough
without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be
cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want
flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener's care. Now,
contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it
must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new
nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially
careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God
has sown in us. Paul says, "I have learned . . . to be content;"
as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some
pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he
sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last
he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have learned in whatsoever
state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old, grey-headed man,
upon the borders of the grave—a poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon
at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul's infirmities, and
share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain
unto his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be
contented with learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a
power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired
gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur,
natural though it be, and continue a diligent pupil in the College of
Content.