The true story is told of a Jesuit priest in Bombay who would drive a motorcycle from one end of the city to the other each day, until one day when he was in an accident. He was then in the constant care of a non-Christian doctor.
When in enormous pain on the table, the priest would look to the wall, hold tightly to the small wooden cross around his neck, and then turn back with a smile on his face. When the day came for the doctor to break the news, it came after a long time effort to repair the leg to no avail.
"We are going to need to amputate your leg."
The priest responded, "That's fine" and he went to sleep. The doctor would ask years later where the priest had gained this freedom within himself, and the priest responded, "Well doctor, I know that with my leg or without my leg, God loves me all the same."
This man had a rich and rooted belief within himself that God loved him, and this belief was so deep that it was a purpose of his life. It did not matter what he could lose in life as long as he had God's love.
When I look at the cross of Jesus Christ, I am looking at this place within myself. The cross does not remove suffering. It does not spare me from painful experiences in my life. The cross does not stop me from walking through the desert and wilderness. But the cross of Jesus Christ does give me an inner freedom that enables me to say with all sincerity, "With or without my pleasures in life, God loves me all the same."
So take what you need from me, you cannot take God's love from me. Push me to walk into and through whatever you want, I cannot walk anywhere to be away from God's love for me.
