Sittin' for a spell with God

So, I saw opening night of "Godspell" a couple weeks ago. It's funny how the little things - seemingly normal, simple things - can prepare you for huge things. A musical isn't a big deal. But the thoughts inspired by it can be.

To provide a tiny bit of background: "Godspell" is based off of the book of Mark from the Bible. The first Act of the show is made up of Jesus running around telling parables, and the second Act picks up with the reactions from the religious leaders of the time...leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection. Okay, good - now we're on the same page.

Two songs made a lasting impression on me - not because of musical quality (because I could tell you about those, but it'd be a different conversation) but because of the life impact I ran into with them later.

The first was "All for the Best." Jesus and His disciple make jokes and remind audience members that when they run into trouble in life, that it's "all for best" and that God has a plan. The production of the song was actually a corny sort of humor that produced smiles and chuckles. Not so funny was finding out right after the show that a friend of mine had to fly home because her step-dad had been killed in a freak accident at work.
Wow. In the face of "Why is she having to go through that, God? It's not fair," I'm met with the echos of humor and lyrics that sing of God having a plan..."it's all for the best."

And really - it's true. If I'm going to trust in this God, I have to believe in the assertions that He makes about Himself. One of them being that He cares about us and has our best interest at heart. Sometimes we just lose track of the timing of that interest...it's in an eternal perspective - not temporal.

So bring on the second song - "Oh God, I'm dying." Jesus is on the cross singing, "Oh, God - I'm bleeding...Oh, God, I'm dying..." and then the ensemble responds with, "Oh, God - you're dying." Okay, so aside from some incredibly interesting thoughts that this song inspires about God and His very being...it also elicited a personal connection within me.

I was reminded of how on the cross, Christ cried out, "My God, my God - why have You forsaken me?" And that got me thinking...
Jesus had the best Dad ever. I mean - absolutely perfect. Perfect love, always there for Jesus...none of this manipulative, failure stuff that we have to deal with regarding our fathers on earth.
So, how much more would the rejection of an absolutely perfect Father hurt? I've veen thinking about the rejection I've gotten in life from my own dad (whatever the cause). I think that the rejection Christ experienced must hurt even more. God actively turned His back on Jesus as he hung on the cross - experiencing punishment for things that he didn't even do. In the worst moment of his life, Christ had the pain mulplied by the rejection of God when he needed Him most.

And that brings me back to the relational pain I experience. It makes me realize more that God really DOES understand what I'm going through. So I can be comforted by the fact that He cries with me when I cry. His heart breaks for me and with me when I am shattered.

I understand Christ more - how wonderful that God brings me to a place where He allows me to relate to Him.