Do this in remembrance of Me...

I find myself being drawn back into my places of pain. I don’t want to go there. I want to move on. But it seems there is more to be gained from the experience, not just for myself. Over and over again, I sense the Lord beckoning me. And invitation to enter into not only the sufferings of others, but His sufferings as well.

As I’ve pondered this over the past week, I have been reminded of the desperation I have felt at different times for my pain not to be lost. That it would count for something eternal. For the significance of whatever I have suffered to be remembered somehow, by someone.

I have been haunted by the words of a Sudanese Christian who has been severely persecuted for her faith. She only asks one thing of the rest of the Body of Christ. “Remember us.” She, too, wants to be remembered for her suffering.

Now, in no way am I comparing what I have been through to the pain she has suffered. The things I have been called to walk through thus far in life are so miniscule in light of the affliction of countless people around the world. My only observation is that I have realized how important is has been to think that my pain counts for something, and how, on a much larger scale, this Sudanese woman also wants her anguish not to be forgotten.

Last Sunday, the analogy was drawn a step further.

Imagine, if you will, you have suffered a great loss on behalf of others. That you literally laid down your life for the good of someone else. And they despised you for it. What if they even went as far as they could to demean you and reject what you had done on their behalf?

How would I feel if someone said that my pain was a waste? That nothing good would ever come from it and they despised the part of my heart I had given away?

What agonies Jesus must face as people reject Him and the life He gave away that we, too, might have life! In how many little ways do I, also, participate in that? Do I despise His authority in my life? Do I take for granted His cross and the blood He shed on my behalf?

When it came time for communion, the picture was complete. The Scriptures were read and I suddenly had a new appreciation for the significance of this sacred act:

That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. (1 Cor. 11:23-26)

He asks the same of us as does the Sudanese Christian. “Remember Me.” That we would call His sufferings to mind and highly value the great price He paid for us to be eternally free. That we would willingly give of ourselves to enter into “the fellowship of His sufferings.”

What an incredible invitation! May He give me the grace to RSVP.