Rising Up Can Be Grueling

Last week, I shared a prayer by Teilhard de Chardin on waiting on the slow work of God. Even as I prayed that prayer in the midst of this week, I felt overwhelmed. While I have been able to catch glimpses of where God is already at work in my life and in the lives of others, I confess that I have felt bereft in other areas.

Why is it that we have a tendency to outweigh what is good with smaller things that don’t feel quite as good?

Maybe that’s why resurrection in real life is hard. We keep piling the stones on, burying ourselves beneath the rubble, when God has already rolled the big one away. It’s almost as though we are trying to deny the power of resurrection. Sometimes rising up can feel more like grueling, plodding upward—maybe. 

That’s why I like Sarah Thebarge’s image of resurrection taking place cell by cell—the slow work of God. It is enough to see the glimpse rather than a blinding flash. Even in the places where I have been bereft, God’s resurrection grace is already at work. It is enough.

Romans 6:5

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.