Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

My God My God, Why have you forsaken me? How many times have I asked this very thing. Sometimes at moments of injustice I find myself asking, God where the heck are you. It turns out I'm not the first. God himself, incarnate as the man Jesus asked the very same thing at the world's greatest moment of injustice. Ps 44:24 - Why do you hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? David asked the same question. Why does it seem like when injustice is abounding, God feels so far away. When some preachers/priests are wrecking lives, where was God? When the religious puritans were murdering Native Americans, where was God? I think he was bleeding for us. He was bleeding for me, the Natives, the puritans, the protestants, the catholics, the Muslims and the preachers/priests.

To hear these words of agony we know the suffering Jesus must have felt in this moment. It's not recorded what the father cried, I bet it would be too painful to hear.

What's in a name?

We just had our 3rd child the other day. I lobbied hard for the name Alita, my wife really wanted Lydia. We went back and forth, what will I get if I give you this name, yadda yadda yadda. Looking back it's kind of surreal. We both felt we had to give up what we wanted or the other person had to be convinced that my way was the true right way. About a week before the birth, we were going back and forth about this in bed. I just said what about Alidia. Instantly we both loved more than our previous choices. It's amazing how God has brought renewal and transformation to our marriage over the last year. This name evidences to us that God redefines the terms of the question and offers us a third way. We both looked at the question as what do I do to get what I want, and God rewrote it to be what would happen if you both got more than you're expecting. It's just a unique name that means her parents love her and each other and are in awe of what God has done in their lives.