Last week was Holy Week, the holiest time of year for Christians, followers of Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord.
For those of us who try our best to stay present with Jesus throughout the week, journeying with him in the highs and lows can be a profound spiritual experience. But Holy Saturday has always been a strange day to observe. It holds such profound emptiness, sorrow, anxiety, uncertainty as it is the day between death and resurrection.
It occurred to me this year, and maybe you have already come to this thought, that Holy Saturday is for all of us who struggle in the in-between of life. The waiting for things to change, for devastation to fall away to hope, grief to transform into peace, longing to become fulfillment.
That day holds the pain of the world deep in God’s heart. A place that so many of us are living in today. If you pay attention to the news, day after day, we hear of people who mentally are not making it with all the stressors of life. Instead of talking with a friend, spouse, family member, counselor, pastor, and being heard, we act out our emotions on others.
In our mental instability (not finding a healthy way to deal with our emotions) we decide making others hurt as deeply as we do is a good answer. It is not. Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist … the list goes on, none of these major religions believe hurting others is a God led answer to our pain.
All direct us to do what is good and right in this life to the well-being of others. Killing, harming, abusing, neglecting, being mean are not an option supported by the divine.
Our world is in desperate need of mental, spiritual, emotional healing. We can wait for the governments to get on top of this need, or we can start with our own well-being and then help others to do the same.
Our scriptures time and again, the Psalms and Gospels being a good example, identify our need to turn our lives over to God. When we do that, through prayer and scripture reading, worship and fellowship, in wise counsel, we can find there is One who understands us.
That is God.
And God does not reject us in our broken state but welcomes us. With open arms God invites us to pour out our story, all of it, ugly and painful, anxious and hurting, that we can finally make room for the soothing of our souls and healing to begin.
If you are struggling with finding peace in your life, seek out someone to talk to. Make sure that someone is strong and healthy enough to not get pulled in by your mental storm but can help you process through it to a healthier place. Let God into your story.
Let yourself be healed, forgiven and then live to the glory of God and the well-being of all. Let your own resurrection begin!
Rev. Karen Martin Tichenor pastors at Soldotna United Methodist Church, 158 S. Binkley St., Soldotna, 907-262-4657, Sunday worship at 10 a.m., Soldotna Food Pantry Wednesdays 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
