When you just can’t: Jesus’ Response

It’s the season of self-improvement. We resolve to do better. We write down our goals and aspirations. We build systems because supposedly we don’t rise to the level of our aspirations but fall to the level of our systems. Everyone and their mother seem to know the secret behind growth and improvement. This is the year. This is the year that you’ll get richer, fitter, smarter, kinder, and happier. The belief in the human spirit is never more alive than at the beginning of a new year. You can do it. If you don’t, that’s on you.?

However, what do we do when we just can’t? What if you just hit rock bottom? What if you are reeling and picking up the pieces of your shattered life? What if you’re overextended and you have no room to invest in yourself let alone anything else? What if you’re just treading water and there seems to be no end in sight to just surviving? What if inevitable suffering has come for you for what seemingly feels like no damn reason? You did not choose the hand that you were dealt. Yet according to all the gurus that are pounding the drum of individual human triumph, anything you don’t change you are actively choosing. To sit with the crushing sense of shame and guilt for not being able to thrive is a cruel and unbearable place to start the year.

It’s as cruel as telling someone whose thoughts are tormented that they just need to think better, when it is our very thoughts that have led us to desolation.?

What would be Jesus’ response to those who just can’t? There is a verse that describes His tenderness to those who are downtrodden by life. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” If you are bruised by life, if you are barely keeping the flame of life going, know that Jesus does not scorn you. Know that Jesus is not contemptuous towards your vulnerability and need. Know that Jesus is not ashamed of you even when you might be scornful, contemptuous, and ashamed of yourself. Jesus looks at you with the utmost tenderness, he weeps and gently lowers the fist that you were battering yourself with.?

He says blessed (happy) are the meek, for they will inherit the earth…blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

What does this mean? Bear with me. Christians celebrate this thing called Lord’s Supper, Communion, or Eucharist. It is the celebration that encapsulates the center of what Christians believe. That Jesus has suffered, died, and resurrected for every single way that we sinned (which translates to falling short or missing the mark). All the reasons that we damn ourselves and others for, Jesus lays his life down so that we can stop. We believe that Jesus is God and that all existence itself and everything that is in time and space is in Jesus. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we proclaim that the bread is Jesus’ body and that the wine or grape juice is Jesus’ blood. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, it is Jesus proclaiming over our lives that despite all the ways that we fall short and miss the mark, He justifies our existence so that we don’t have to justify it to ourselves.

Jesus proclaims that He carves out a place for you in time and space and declares your existence justified. Jesus proclaims your adoption into the family of God as beloved children. You simply get to exist because Jesus wants you to, and your existence is evidence of your belovedness in Him. The very fact that you live is proof that Jesus is thinking of you with love, and He wills your good. He laid down His life so that you may live. Even if you just can’t take another step towards growth or improvement, He deems you worthy of love and existence. Even if you fail to achieve a single goal or a modicum of accomplishment, you are justified. You don’t have to prove a thing. Recognize that Jesus is in you and that you are a unique expression of His life and love, which no one can take away from you. Recognize Jesus in you and lay down the cruelty, shame, and condemnation that you self-flagellate with.?

Let’s read the beatitudes again from a place of receiving Jesus and flip it.?

In Jesus you have inherited the earth, you get to exist. Therefore, you are free to be meek (humble, blessed state of self-forgetfulness), which means you are invited to be free from the anxious obsession of focusing on yourself. Through Jesus, you are adopted as God’s beloved children. Therefore, you are invited to make peace within yourself and with others. You don’t have to justify yourself to yourself or others. Cease your war with yourself. Receive the tenderness, patience, kindness, and love that Jesus sees you with and extend it to yourself as if you were being tender, patient, kind, and loving to Jesus himself.?

If you just can’t. That’s okay. Live. Your life is worth living. Every standard that you measure yourself against will shatter against Jesus’ loving kindness, and when you hit rock bottom it is Jesus himself that you will land on. We land on the truth that we are beloved children of God who are justified in Jesus and the gates of hell will not prevail against us who stand on this firm foundation.