UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion
Boz Tchividjian | Apr 2, 2015
As Good Friday approaches, many hurting people deeply struggle with its meaning and its God. It is my hope that we will be challenged as we find hope and comfort in the words written by a dear friend. A friend who has so often been the ‘flash of light’ in my life that reflects the very real presence of God. The same God loves, pursues, and never lets go. May each of you encounter this amazing God during this special week. – Boz
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To the believer, Good Friday is the most difficult of days. From Gethsemane to Golgotha, the passion of Christ stirs enormous feeling and leaves behind an ache that can only be relieved by Easter. If not for the joy of that empty tomb, few of us could bear the road to the cross.
To the believer who is also a victim of child abuse, the commemoration of Good Friday can be particularly painful. Although the abuse of our Lord may remind a survivor of their own pain, there is often a deeper anguish, an anguish once taught to me by a woman I didn’t know, a woman I still don’t know.
On a Good Friday afternoon in my hometown, I made my way to the church of my childhood. Little did I know that I was being watched and my presence would impact a young woman and instill in me a lesson I will hold until my dying hour.
Several days after that service, a college student appeared in the doorway of my university office. She didn’t want to give me her name, didn’t want to tell me very much at all about her life, she simply wanted to thank me for getting her through Good Friday. As she spoke, tears filled her eyes and she held up one finger—letting me know that if I could hang on for just a minute, she would be able to collect herself and finish telling me what she had come to say.
When she regained control of her emotions, she told me she was a survivor of sexual abuse, and that she had been abused within the church. Like so many before and after her, she had made an outcry against a respected member of her faith community but she was met with disbelief from her family, her church, from everyone she loved, from everyone who professed to be a Christian.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.