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Finding Peace in the Storm
praise and adulation. Instead, He was falsely accused
and thus endured a torture that no man could know
because He was perfect love and perfect innocence.
In the moment of your suffering or your pain, you
can imagine some aspect of Jesus’ suffering and draw
nearer to Him because your suffering has allowed
you to know more about Him than if you had not
suffered at all. In that moment, you can express your
sorrow for His suffering and console His heart. The
prayer could be something like this: “Dear Jesus, I
am deeply sorry that You were falsely accused. You
deserve nothing but love and adulation. I am a sinner,
but I, too, have been falsely accused. In this suffering,
I desire to draw near to You and to join with You in
pardoning my accuser, since it is not likely that my
accuser really understands what he is doing. So You
said about those who crucified You! Please take my
suffering and join it with Yours for the salvation of
the world.”
Another example comes from my life. I suffer with
severe asthma — a type that results in about thirty-five
hundred deaths each year. Once, when I was experiencing
days of difficulty in breathing, it seemed that the
Holy Spirit prompted me to unite my suffering to Jesus
in a more specific way. I was drawn to consider His suffering
on the Cross. Many are unaware that those who
are crucified actually die of asphyxiation. Once Jesus
could no longer push His body up with His feet, He
could no longer inhale or exhale. In my meditation, I
imagined His loss of breath and His great agony from
the thousands of wounds inflicted upon Him. Then I
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