Lockdown Day 24: GETHSEMANE CHOICES FOR A POST-COVID LIFE
It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J. K. Rowling
Whether it’s another 12 days or another 12 months, lockdown will eventually come to an end. And when it does, it will be too late to start thinking about how we will approach the new normal of a post-lockdown life. We need to contemplate this reality while we are still in lockdown
I am reminded this morning of the teaching of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and author of the classic book “The Cost of Discipleship”. Bonhoeffer counted the cost of discipleship as a lifestyle and not as a theology. He became known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship and was arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943 and executed in April 1945. While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Bonhoeffer wrote the following on embracing persecution and making choices that will suit a transformed Christ consciousness:
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ.
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. The Christian life is a crucified life. ‘Take up your cross and follow Me…’ was the command of Jesus. ‘I am crucified with Christ’ was the confession of Paul. But just as we must all take up our cross daily and be crucified with Christ, before we get to Calvary, we always pass through Gethsemane, the place where our will meets the will of God. It is here, in this garden, that the battle is fought – and either won or lost. The Roman soldiers did not take Jesus’ life when they crucified Him. He had already laid it down Himself. You cannot kill a man who is already dead!
Jesus was victorious at Calvary because He was victorious in Gethsemane. The disciples faltered and fled at the crucifixion because they slept in Gethsemane. Gethsemane is the place where you make the decision every day to get on the cross or to run from it.”
This will be true for every believer who confesses a crucified Christ. Our Gethsemane choices today will determine our Calvary conduct in a post-lockdown life. Choose today!