Thirty-third day of Lent

Friday, March 26, 2021

Hallelujah!  He is risen!

A Lenten Devotional Guide 

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11 NIV

In the movie, The Two Brothers, twin tiger cubs are taken into captivity and sent to different places by their human captors. One cub is given to a circus where he is trained to excite the crowds. The cub’s hatred for captivity reaches a peak when his trainer commands him to leap through a ring of fire. Snarling, he refuses. A senior trainer says, “Give him to me. I’ll make him obey.”

The movie doesn’t show the beating the young tiger receives, but you know it happened. When he is brought back to the ring of fire again, the trainer says, “Now he will jump.” And he does. Watching, our senses recoil at what was done to break the young tiger’s spirit.

Later, through a set of unusual circumstances, the twins are brought together again, and they escape into the wild. Hunters go after them, knowing the tigers’ hatred of man and their inability to fend for themselves in the jungle. The men surround the tigers with a ring of fire, forcing them together so they become easy targets. But the circus twin remembers – and he is not afraid of the fire. All he has to do is to leap through it. He does so and then returns to urge his twin to follow him. Because of the harsh discipline of his circus days, the trained twin saves both of their lives as they escape the hunters’ bullets.

Believing that every hardship coming into our lives has to pass through the hand of God before touching us, we can embrace trouble with, “Lord, what do you want me to learn from this?” If we do, later on, looking back, we can see where the time that seemed so hard has matured and strengthened us in our Christian walk.

Lord, your word tells me to “endure hardship as discipline,” because you are treating me as your child. Enable me to trust your choice of discipline for my life and to seek to learn its lesson. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Hallelujah! He is Risen!
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2011
compiled by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator
reproduced and edited by Patience Fort