Isaiah

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

- Isaiah 53:4-5

Man, as a whole, has turned away from God. I think we all know that. But the real kicker is that I myself turn away from God, every day. Each hour I fail to do the things He demands of me, and again and again I find myself up to my neck in sin, clawing for a way into the light. Isaiah predicted my behavior well. It's a destructive, looping process, and I know in my heart that there will be no permanent end to my temptations until I am with my Lord in glory.

The sins of pride, lust, gluttony... These things can be all-consuming to me at times. But when I have my wits about me again, I descend into a kind of chaos. What have I done? Was it not enough for the Lamb of God to be "crushed for our iniquities" on that lonely hill outside Jerusalem? Must I continue to crucify Him daily? Must I, weeping, drive the nails into Him again and again, hoping in the back of my mind that someday He will save me from myself?

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). God recognized, even in Isaiah's day, that man had become all but a lost hope, a flock that had lost its shepherd. And even then, He made a promise to us. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, 'God with us'" (Isaiah 7:14). The Lord had always intended to give us the greatest gift that could ever be mustered... the gift of Himself. In a more personal way, He recognized that I would fail to follow Him, and there would be many times that I would turn my back on His love and try to forge my own path in the desert. And knowing these things to be true, He still came down and suffered to the death so that I too could "see the light of life and be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). Though I falter every day, His call never ceases: "make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). In the dreary wilderness of my mind, I am demanded to turn my back on sin and forge a straight road through any obstacles that may be in the way, a demand made by the God who has loved me enough to always ask more of me.

As always, my thoughts change from despair to hope. Hallelujah! The Lord has come! I have the strength that I need, always emanating from Him, to turn from the job of executioner of Christ. Instead, I can carry my own cross and be crucified with Him. I, one of the many hopeless causes, have the ability to throw off worries and sins, and die to myself. The great sadness of my shortcomings is being transformed into an even greater glory just by meditating on these things. What better joy can there be than realizing that I have been rescued from the sinking ship of the world?

Slowly but surely, the ever-patient God is molding me into the "new man," the man He knows I can be, the man that He made me to be. "We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand" (Isaiah 64:8).