Sometimes I ask myself this question when I find myself at some sort of impasse. I want my circumstances to change or maybe for others to change so I can proceed. So I can move forward. This soul searching often times yields some interesting answers. My mind drifts into the what ifs. And considers what I might do if I were only smarter, richer, happier, friendlier, or more content. If only I were someone else, then maybe I could handle life better and move through this impasse. But I am me.
I let my mind wander further and imagine what I would have done differently when I put myself into a movie I am watching or a book I am reading. It is easier to feel smarter then. We can anticipate the ending of the story line and shake our heads at the miscalculations of the characters. It makes us feel smarter and confident that we would handle the problem or antagonist better than the hero. We seem to be able to handle other people’s problems better than we handle our own.
We believe that we would know what to do until we are faced with a problem personally. Then it is different. We are not sure what to do so we make the best decision with the information we have. Sometimes we will succeed and at other times we will only make things worse.
We really are no different than the characters in the movies we watch or books we read. As a viewer we can fast forward, or as a reader skip to the end of the book. But, in life we simply cannot.
This question plagued me further this week as I considered Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Both of which fall on the days leading up to the writing of this post. It made me stop and consider whether I would be in the crowd on Palm Sunday or with the group, only a few days later, when Jesus was condemned to die by crucifixion.
It would be too easy to say, “Of course I would have recognized Jesus as Messiah, the long awaited Yeshua, riding on a donkey into Jerusalem. I would be waving my palm branch and yelling Hosanna!” Maybe I would have had I been there. It is what the Jews expected. A triumphal entrance of their king, the one to sit on the throne of David. The years of oppression would be ended ad they would be free. Or as they thought it would be. They hadn’t anticipated a crucifixion and a resurrection as a way to salvation, not only for the Jews, but also the Gentiles.
A few days later, as we know, the crowd’s chant turn to “Crucify him” and “Give us the other prisoner, the murderer, as a gift for Passover.” We know this because we have watched the countless portrayals of Easter, and read the end of the story in the Bible.
But if we are honest, how many times is it much easier to praise and raise our hands when we see Jesus working in our lives as a triumphal King. We celebrate and praise. We post on social media for our answered prayers. And rightly we should. But, isn’t also like us to get frustrated when prayers go unanswered? Do we praise then? Or if we are honest we really have no answers, only more questions. Who are we then?
People who celebrate and praise and yell Hosanna and then turn into the angry mob a few days later? We try to convince ourselves that we would never be like that. But, in a way in our own times and own circumstances we might be exactly like the people who lived a long time before we arrived on planet earth. Human nature hasn’t changed.
Who are we then? People that God loved, both Jew and Gentile, from every background and ethnicity. People who He was willing to save. People who He knew would continue to make mistakes and mess up, but whom He would send His very son to die for. People who might praise, and also get frustrated. People who impatiently wait for His return. Who are we? His beloved. And that is enough.
Moving Forward 