Reflections 3/21/2020: I have been so preoccupied with my cancer battle and the World’s COVID-19 pandemic, that I have forgotten it is Lent. The 40 days before You, Jesus, were “taken up” on the cross. You knew exactly what heading to Jerusalem meant for You, but You “set Your face” to go anyway. Conflict. Rejection. Arrest. Abandonment by loved ones. Kangaroo courts. Beatings. Blood shed. Ridicule. Nails pounded through hands that healed thousands. Carrying the weight of the entire World’s sin in Your God/Man body. Feeling forsaken by Your Father for the first time in all of eternity. BUT also “Tetelestai!”… it is a done deal… paid in full! The largest reason that You came! Sins redeemed through Your shed blood! What LOVE is this? Especially knowing each step You took toward Jerusalem was toward excruciating pain, rejection and suffering. It would be like me signing up for cancer after reading all the fine print  of chemo side effects, itching, total body scabs, nausea, loss of appetite, hair hacked off and isolated from the work I love… multiplied by 1000! My Lent resolve this year is to allow any discomfort I feel in my cancer battle to remind me of the pain You willingly chose to endure for my sake! “That I may know You, the power of Your Resurrection, and the FELLOWSHIP OF YOUR SUFFERINGS!” Phil.3:10