 I like to sweat. I realize that will strike some as gross, but when I sweat I tell myself that all the bad toxins are flowing out of my body. I don’t know if that is really true, but of all the lies I can tell myself surely this is not the most dangerous.
If you really want to sweat, you hit the sauna after running for thirty minutes on the treadmill. This may not be healthy at all, but if you do it you are going to look like a person who just stepped out of the pool. People will stare, perhaps thinking there is something wrong with your body’s natural functions, but they will also think that you are really intense.
The sauna is a quiet place – a place of healing. Until the evil people come.
The evil people are those who shatter the serene quiet with their headphones blaring so loudly that you are sure they have suffered severe hearing loss. These are the individuals who presuppose that everyone in the sauna shares their taste in music. Actually, I don’t think they’ve presupposed anything – no one can have a coherent thought with music that loud entering their brain.
What is the etiquette of dealing with a high-decibel individual? Should one stare with eyes that say, “If you don’t turn that down I’m going to strangle you with it?” Should one ask politely that the individual turn down their music, committing to the back-and-forth of, “Would you please turn your music down?” “Huh?” getting louder and louder until the voices involved are as loud as the music?
I often stare or say something when I feel more powerful than the person. However, if I am intimidated by the physique of the person with loud music, which happens with more frequency than I would care to admit, then I stare angrily at the floor. I am willing to exercise strength if I feel strong and if it serves me or feeds my ego. I am reluctant to engage if I fear defeat.
Strength and weakness are funny things. I like to use strength when it serves my purposes, and I never like to be weak.
Holy Week turns our notions of strength and weakness on their head. Holy Week refers to the week between what we call Palm Sunday (Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem) and Easter Sunday (the day of Jesus’ resurrection). It is the week on which the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) spend most of their time. It was a week of paradoxes. Jesus entered Jerusalem heralded as a king. He was betrayed. He was mocked, beaten, whipped, and ultimately crucified. Jesus’ exhibited profound weakness and humility in suffering it all, and yet his last words were “It is finished,” as if he had accomplished some great course set before him.
What if Jesus did accomplish something great through weakness? What if the cross was triumph? What if Jesus was the strongest person to ever live and suffered the most willingly? What would that do to our notions of strength and weakness – power and defeat?
Please join us this week as we blog daily to dwell upon the final week of Jesus’ life. We do this with the intent of preparing for our Good Friday Service, on Friday, April 2nd, at 7:00pm (childcare provided for children ages 0-4), and our Easter Sunday service on Sunday, April 4th, at 10:30am. |