The Leveled Ground Before the Cross

One of the most beautiful things about the cross is that the ground before it is level. Not the actual ground, of course, we all know it was on a hill far away, but the spiritual ground before the cross is as level as the carpenter's measure—a flat plane. From the third chapter of the bible we've been measuring our sins, though, and passing them off as another's problem. But Christ came in flesh, lived as one of us, and died, so that once and for all, no man's head can rise higher than another's and no man's head will ever rise higher than Christ's. This is the theological truth, but the practical working out of it is what catches us. Mountains, molehills, plains, and valleys—we are always trying to make our station lower or higher than what He has called it.

I did it this morning on my way to work: Well, no one else is in a season just like this, undergoing all this transition, etc. etc. etc.. If God was a mocker I could almost feel his mockery: Oh really, Lore? No one understands you? No one understands this season? No one could possibly get what you're walking through? Really?

And then his chastening comfort:

The ground before the cross is level, daughter. Every person you know is walking through a difficulty you could not possibly understand—and do not need to because I have. I am.

For every young mom who feels isolated and alone in her season there is an older single who feels isolated and alone. For every man with the weight of the world on his shoulders there is a young man who feels the weight of nothing on his shoulders. For every woman struggling with infertility there is a unmarried person longing for a spouse. For every one in need of the gospel there is another person in need of the gospel.

We all, at our base, need the issues of our hearts captured by the understanding that God alone understands—but that He gave us the gift of the Whole Church to walk alongside on this level ground before the cross.

Your season, and mine, is no more unique or special or any other season. They are all beautiful in their time—and only beautiful because God has given His Son to us as an intercessor in the midst of them. Stop looking for people who just get you and look for people who get the gospel—and if they do not, teach them the beauty of this leveled ground, the beautifully equal need we all have for the cross in every season of life.