Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
Do you remember a time in your young life when you cried out and then paused to see if anyone was listening and would respond? Were you rewarded with attention to your suffering, did they question your motives, or were you ignored? How has that experience translated to your prayer life?
Just as we cried to our parents when we scraped our knees or were wronged by a sibling or friend, we can cry out Abba! Father! In doing so, we ask God to right the wrongs in our life like a child to a parent. We are adopted as children of God when we accept Christ and receive the Spirit. When we cry out, we don’t cry out alone. The Spirit cries out with us and advocates for us as God’s children.
This week’s liturgical calendar reading is Romans 8:12-25 where Paul tells the Romans, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.“ Their sufferings were driven by fear, just like ours. We’re either afraid of losing something or being denied something we need.
A male friend of mine was enduring passing a kidney stone and was writhing in pain with his faithful wife by his side consoling him. When the kidney stone had finally passed, and she saw the tiny size of it compared to the children she had spent hours in pain giving birth to, she rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, shut up!”
We are not the only ones crying out for liberation when we feel alone in our suffering. Paul says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” We are part of that creation, and thus we groan alongside it as we wait to share in God’s glory.
What is God’s glory? It is often defined as the manifestation of God’s presence in a broad interpretation, for example, the pillar of fire that led the exodus out of Egypt. But 1 Peter 4:14 also points out that the Holy Spirit that resides with us is God’s glory, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” If we feel the presence of the Spirit, then we are sharing in God’s glory.
I love The Bucket List movie because of the characters' journey to get to know and support one another through suffering a terminal diagnosis. They go through a process of adopting each other as the Spirit adopts us and advocates for us. Their mutual journey is a redemptive journey to experience joy in their lives before they die. Ours is a redemptive journey, also.
We are heirs with an obligation to share in Christ’s sufferings, as Paul wrote in Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” As God’s children, we have many siblings; let’s be honest, all are real people with imperfect and flawed feelings and needs. It’s easier said than done to be loving, supportive, accepting, encouraging, and helping to everyone in your adoptive family and your biological family.
Paul reminds us that the suffering we encounter on this earth is temporary but necessary to witnessing God’s glory one day. He reminds us that hope is the key to being saved by faith. We hope for the unseen, the things that have not materialized yet, and the cries that have not received a response.
My first experience with the glory of God was on a freeway leaving Denver, Colorado, before sunrise in 1979. I was an eighteen-year-old driving my yellow 1973 Pontiac Firebird with all my worldly belongings crammed inside. This same car had blown a water pump a few months earlier, going from my rural Idaho home to Denver on Highway 40 near Roosevelt, Utah. I had to spend the night in my car and was almost robbed in the middle of the night as I waited for my dad to wire the money to repair it.
Before I left Lowrey Air Force Base in Denver, I prayed for the first time since my mother died when I was twelve. I was scared and desperate as I prayed at 4:00 AM to get home safely. The answer to my prayers was delayed by a drunk airman in the parking lot that begged me to take him with me each time I took a load of belongings to the car. I breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t appear on my last trip.
As the sun rose and I passed through the suburban areas of Denver on the freeway, I suddenly felt the glory of God wash over my body. A body of energy I had never felt before washed over me, enveloping me in a love so affirming that my soul was bursting. Every essence of my spirit was electrified. Tears immediately started washing down my cheeks as I screamed, “I believe!” Then, my fear was replaced with calmness for the rest of the trip. I still had problems with my engine overheating in the summer heat, but I wasn’t scared. I just took a break and let it cool down, then proceeded.
Choose this time, right now, to get on your knees and start letting go of your pain, your sin, your doubt, and your fear. Let Jesus wash it away with his grace. He is waiting for you to let him in so that you can experience the glory of God.
Once we experience the Spirit like that, we are no longer slaves to fear. So, we gather here as Christians, in these words, with hope as God’s children. Go forth and greet each other with good words, handshakes, and hugs. Listen to one other’s joys, worries, and pain with open hearts and minds. Lift each other in prayer earnestly, and the Spirit prays with you. Be courageous to confess your sins, experience forgiveness, and encourage others to do the same. Finally, laugh together, enjoying the freedom of redemption.
This is the way.