Celtic Christianity – On The Journey

If you know any human being, you know someone who has suffered. Suffering is one thing we all have in common, to one degree or another. Through most of human history, suffering has been the norm. For the follower of Jesus, suffering is what our Lord told us would happen to us (John 16:33).

In the West, particularly in America, we seem to have bought the notion that suffering is something that happens to those who are “sinners,” or to those Christians who just don’t have enough faith. We don’t like suffering (I am included in that number). It hurts. It’s hard. It doesn’t fit our image of the “blessed life.” It lasts too long. I have heard this attitude described as wanting the crown without the cross. Take a look at the kind of preaching you will find in a lot of churches and organizations. There are steps to become a better (fill in the blank), principles to be happy, keys to finding your best life.

You don’t hear many sermons on Romans 5:3; 8:17-18; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Philippians 3:10; 1 Peter 2:19, and other passages that speak of our suffering as followers of Jesus, and how that suffering allows us the privilege of entering into the sufferings of Christ. We simply don’t take seriously the many times our Lord tells us that following him is going to cost us something. It’s not really anything big, just our life!

Some of us wouldn’t mind suffering so much if it didn’t take so doggone long. I think the word longsuffering is appropriate. Suffering seems to last and last, so we look for a quick fix, and when one can’t be found, we complain to God that it’s too hard and is going on too long. We live in an instant gratification culture, where you can get it quick and get it your way. What we forget is the simple fact that if we seriously follow Jesus, we give up the microwave, Burger King life. What we do get, we get in God’s timing and in his way. We don’t really like that. I know I don’t. It gets in the way and messes up our plans for a nice tidy life. It reminds us that Someone else is in control, not us.

Suffering is a fact of life, even for those who claim that their faith puts them above and beyond it. Wouldn’t it be better to suffer for the King and his Kingdom, knowing he can and will redeem it and that it can’t even begin to compare with the glory that awaits us? I think I’ll take that deal. God help me.

The Celtic Christians believed in “thin places,” places where the veil between heaven and earth was thinner than usual. These spots were good places to experience the presence of God and hear from him. I have never been to a place that could be described that way, until today.

This evening while driving the Camp Canaan shuttle to Charlotte, I experienced something I never have before. We were traveling through Ft. Mill and it was raining. The sun was shining behind us and I looked up and saw the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen. It was bright and all the color bands were uniform. As we went down the road, it looked as if the rainbow was forming an perfectly centered arch over the road. The rainbow faded out as the sun went behind some clouds. When it came back it was joined by another rainbow, above the first and not as bright. The bows then faded again.

The sun reappeared, and the first rainbow was back again, but this time it looked like it was right in front of us. As I looked to the right and to the left, I could see where the rainbow began and ended. No, I didn’t see a pot of gold. As I looked at the rainbow reaching to the ground, I thought of heaven touching earth, and I was immediately overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of my heavenly Father, and of his love and care for me. I was filled with a peace such as I have not often experienced. That sense of God’s love and of peace has stayed with me throughout the evening.

I believe I was in one of those thin places. I always thought I’d have to travel to some far away location to find one, if they existed. Here was one in Ft. Mill, SC of all places. It just goes to show you what Abba can do, when you least expect it. I don’t plan on going searching for thin places every time I see a rainbow, but my prayer is that God would make my life a thin place, where heaven touches earth.