Sometimes we get the sense that progress is linear (or that it should be). What comes next should be better than what came before; who we are now should improve on who we’ve been.
The trouble, of course, is that life isn’t like that—not really.
Our journeys twist and turn and double back. There are reversals of fortune and falls from grace. We are rejected. Embarrassed. Hurt. Betrayed. What we once thought was certain crumbles beneath our feet; what we once were sure we’d moved beyond springs up again and again.
It’s easy to get discouraged when the messy reality looks nothing like the clear and steady forward march we had anticipated. It’s tempting to lose hope, to lose faith. Where is God when nothing is as we’re sure it should be?
Somehow, the promise of the gospel is that it is precisely in the mess that God is most present. It is when we stumble through the twists and turns that we find ourselves on holy ground.
The season of Lent is coming to a close, and we discover that our unpredictable journey has led us to the cross of Jesus. Jesus, who was rejected, embarrassed, hurt, betrayed. Jesus, whose death culminated in the most stunning reversal of fortune of all: new life where it was least expected.
As we prepare for the joy of Easter morning, may we remember the winding road that led us there—God’s presence in the unlikeliest of places. God’s willingness to change death to life.