Jesus said, ‘Take up your cross.’ (Mark 8:34-35) It is not something you go looking for in faraway places. Sooner or later the Lord hands us a cross, and our job is to recognise it. For each of us there are events that made a difference. Our sorrowful mysteries will be different for each reader. Maybe it was a meeting with a friend, a lover or an enemy. Maybe it was a sickness, or a triumph. We try to see our life through the eyes of faith, with a confidence that God in his Providence can draw good out of the most awful and unwelcome happenings.
This is true wisdom, to find a faith that can carry us through darkness, doubt, and suffering. They call it the mystical phase of religious development, and many of you who form the Sacred Space community are there. – Sacred Space
Life’s sorrowful mysteries whilst painful are also some of the most productive seasons in personal growth. But not everyone who goes through crises are transformed positively. Some only walk in circles while others become embittered and jaded. The difference, psychologists say, lies in whether or not we possess an anchor around which to change – something stable and certain that enables us to take leaps of faith when in the fog of doubt, to see hope in darkness.
It’s worth asking ourselves if we have such an anchor in our lives. For me, ever since my teen years, I have had only one anchor I cling to. Even though sometimes I forget, and I don’t always ground myself as firmly as I should to it, there is only one Anchor for me. There is nothing and noone else that can be my life’s anchor and compass. Nothing can even come close.
Do you, my friends, have an anchor? Is it enough to sustain you?
*************
First love, First love my soul longs after You
First love, my First love I want my heart to stay so true
Because You first loved me, Jesus, You will always be
You will always be my First love
If I ever lack endurance I remember Your assurance
That Your only banner over me is love
If my heart begins to waver, pull me back my loving Saviour
Pull me back till I return to my First love – Petra, ‘First Love’
Journey of the Heart 