When Agony Becomes Ecstasy

April 28, 2022

Dear Lord, thank you for a hope and vision of life that transcends all human pain and suffering as we join in Your suffering on the Cross. Thank you that now our anguish and the anguish of the whole world will be smothered with Your love and joy. Amen.

Father Ezekiel began, "When the trumpet sounded there was a sudden blast and my whole body was transformed. I thought, it's so beautiful, so very, very simple, I'm flying and dancing with Jesus, it's all soooo simple, it's real and I can see it. While Jesus and I were dancing He was showing me new steps. The Lord does this every day with us, He arranges and orders our steps anew each morning, it is up to us to decide whether or not we follow them. There were no more veils, no more filters, it was so very real, where humanity and divinity meet and the two become one. One Church, one body in Christ, when we are one in His agonizing, suffering on the Cross, we become one in His joyous, euphoric glory for all eternity. He truly completes us.

"I suddenly saw a big bowl of soup and had a ladle in my hand and heard the Lord telling me to take a big scoop from the bottom of the bowl as this would feed and nourish us body and soul.

"I got, experienced true love of the Cross, both sides and understood that the participation of His great martyrdom of love suffered during His passion, leads to the joy of understanding the love He poured out of His heart for all of us. And the beauty of all this is, we get to experience this NOW with no barriers, no filters, no veils, it's real and it's forever."

As it is written in Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is our strength."

When Father Ezekiel shared what he had seen and experienced through the revelation and grace of God, this reminded me of the story of 16-year-old, Robin Graham.

Robin is the youngest person in history to ever sail all the way around the world alone. He decided to try this incredible feat when he was only 16. Little did he know all he was getting into. His voyage took three years and, in that time, he was smashed broadside by ocean storms, one time his mast was snapped in two by a wave; another time he was almost totally destroyed by a waterspout. Robin's worst experience, was near the equator, in the doldrums, that windless, current less part of the ocean. He became so discouraged that he completely gave up. He covered his boat with kerosene and set it on fire right out in the middle of the ocean. Robin quickly changed his mind, jumped back on board and had to put out the fire with his bare hands.

After three years, Robin Graham sailed into the Los Angeles harbor as the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. He was greeted enthusiastically by boats with banners, crowds and news reporters. Cars honked and steam boats blasted their whistles as he came sailing through the channel. The joy, the ecstasy of that moment was unlike any he had ever known. No return from another sailing trip had been as glorious, but no other sailing trip had been so agonizing. The investment, the pain and the agony of this round the world trip were essential ingredients in the ecstasy of this dramatic homecoming.

This is one of the great truths of Scripture that we may come to appreciate anew through our trials and tribulations, involving pain, disappointment and even agony, that deep sense of joy, real fulfillment and true maturity and trust in our Lord Jesus. Paul says in Romans 5, "that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."

And in James 1:2-4 reads, "the trials and agony of life are the indispensable building blocks of human character, the essential road to be traveled if we are to be "mature and complete."

It is finished! Let the celestial symphony scratch out its last mournful notes of discord, before it bursts into joyous and glorious song! Amen!