Imagine

Hosanna!  The triumphant cries ring out from people everywhere!

Imagine spending a great portion of your life so devoted to your job that you left your family and traveled as far as you could to do your work.  Imagine that most people you met ignored you, or worse – abused you, verbally and physically.  Imagine being called hateful, hurtful names.  Imagine having to do the same work over and over and over because most people didn’t fully believe in what you were doing, and very few wanted to work with you.  Imagine having to keep secret all the wonder that you knew in your heart.  What a lonely life, filled with doubt that might be.

Imagine a moment, as you entered a city, where people cried out it praise and adoration of you.  Imagine the joy that would fill your heart as you realize that your years of work and torment and persecution were finally worth it.  Imagine having gifts showered on you, being treated as royalty as you walked by.  Imagine looking at these people and seeing love and understanding in their eyes.  What a joyful life, filled with satisfaction that might be.

Imagine, shortly after praising you for your good work, these same people suddenly turn away from you and turn into an angry mob.  The abuse and persecution return, but in great numbers.  So many people are gathered here together and they all speak out against you at once.  Someone you once trusted with all your heart, someone you believed could continue telling others about your work, turns a deaf ear and blind eye to you.  What abandonment you must feel.

Imagine teaching, only to be ignored.

     Imagine leading, and not to be followed.

          Imagine loving, to receive hate in return.

               Imagine dying for the sake of people who don’t deserve it.

Imagine doing all this on faith – a belief in something greater than yourself, a promise from which you will not benefit.