I made a decision this morning that due to some of the upcoming events with our church I needed to get back into the gym after taking about a 2 month leave of absence.  And as I was running I was just letting my mind wander as to avoid concentrating on the pain and anguish that I was feeling.  I began to think about this past Sunday and all the things that went on and was just basically replaying the day like a movie in my mind.  Well when I got to the Sunday morning service and got to the children’s sermon that our Assistant Pastor Jody Burkeen gave and I began to think about the upcoming Easter weekend.  As I thought about this my mind went automatically to the movie by Mel Gibson “The Passion of the Christ”, in my opinion there is no better depiction on the crucifixion than that movie.     

Well as I began to think about this movie I remembered the scenes of the guards taking my Savior (and yours I hope) to Golgotha where He was to be crucified.  I remembered the scenes that seemed to take hours where Jesus was beaten and tortured to beyond recognition.  I remembered sitting there wanting to scream out for them to stop, I wanted to stand up and fight for Him as Peter did.  And although I know that prophecy had to be fulfilled and that 3 days later Jesus rose again victorious from the grave where He was buried I was still saddened, moved, angered, and full of worship beyond words to what I had seen.  As these thoughts went on I was brought back to present time by the fact that the treadmill was starting to move faster than my feet were so I was beginning to fall behind.  Now here is where a decision has to be made; do I run harder and possibly injure myself or because I know that this is the first time in 2 months that I have worked out if I don’t take it a little easy I will pop my calf muscle ;o). 

But at that moment I was taken to the thoughts of Jesus carrying the cross through the city over to Golgotha and the pain and anguish that He must have endured.  After the beating and all of the wounds from the whipping that He received He still continued on.  At any time He could have had a legion of angels there to assist Him and to destroy His captors.  We as humans give up at some point due to pain or exhaustion but Jesus never did.  He loved us so much that He endured and persevered so that our sins could be wiped clean and we could spend eternity in heaven with the Father.  My Savior and yours, Jesus Christ went the distance and I hope that everyone who reads this has an understanding of what that means for your life.   If you don’t know Jesus personally I beg you to use the contact page to email me or find another pastor somewhere to talk with. 

God Bless ~ Tyler