Isaiah 53:2-6

I usually prefer the ESV translation of the Bible and the NKJV, but this morning I was reading Isaiah 53:5 in different translations, and the translation called The Message really spoke to me a lot.

Isaiah 53:5 (The Message)

2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

If only I could have a "mustard seed" of faith, or character of Christ, what a difference there would be in my life, such as the way I treat my relationship with Christ, or the way I treat my wife and my kids, or even my desire to help others in ways that normally I would overlook.

For the last 24 hours I have had one of by bi-monthly headaches, that really ruins my day. When I get them I am quite miserable and tend to be in a grouchy mood and snap at people, OK snap at my wife and kids. But I have to think about how Christ reacted when he was in the ultimate pain during his death on the cross.

Christ was torn to pieces when he was beaten, had to carry his own cross on his shoulders after being beat, had a crown of thorns pressing on his temples, people were spitting on him, people laughing at him and calling him names, and then he was nailed to the cross he carried. And what does he do while he is hanging on the cross? He never says one bad thing, never passes any blame, but He asked God to forgive everyone because they did not know what they were doing.

Makes my headache very insignificant, and my reactions, while having one, quite the opposite of how my Heavenly Father expects me to act.