THE LIVED LIFE
Jesus’ last word from the cross in John’s gospel, is a single Greek word ‘tetelestai’. Often this is translated, “It is finished.” The word Jesus spoke is a form of the word ‘telos’, which found its way into English meaning ‘end, purpose, or goal’. A more literal translation of the word Jesus spoke is ‘It has been finished’. Jesus’ last word is not a dying gasp. I believe we might paraphrase His last word to mean, “Mission accomplished!”
The poem ‘The Lived Life’ is one of Gerhard Frost’s classics.
Blessed Good Friday to you and yours. –Pastor Scott
THE LIVED LIFE by Gerhard Frost
I remember a little pair of shoes.
For months they stood side by side
on the closet floor,
begging for feet.
We had an active four-year-old
who ran and danced through the days
with always new plans for the morrow.
But one day she lay still
in a distant hospital
while the weeks went by.
It was polio.
We had shopped for shoes
and she loved hers especially
because they were her first that tied.
I remember praying,
as we put them aside,
that they would be worn again.
That experience taught me
that it is a high privilege
to support life.
Never since have I complained
about the price of children’s shoes.
Life is meant to beget and sustain more life.
To grow tired is not a tragedy
if one is living by loving,
dying by giving.
The call to discipleship
is to “come and die,”
usually not in one burst of effort
or in a single pool of blood,
but in the steady self-draining
of life-strength and energy.
There’s no room for self-pity
in the lived life.
Only the unlived quality
of our existence
should ever make us sad.