Anthony Boulevard is one of the main north-south roads running through Fort Wayne. You can imagine everyone's surprise when people found a 12' x 15' gaping hole in the middle of the road late Sunday afternoon. Crews found that a brick pipe built in 1884 collapsed beneath the road due to recent heavy rains and flooding. It will take about a week to repair the pipe and fix the road. Since the collapse was right next to a bridge over one of Fort Wayne's rivers, people will have to use one of the other bridges across. I can only imagine what kind of traffic problems that sinkhole is going to cause in the rest of the city.

That's how life is sometimes, isn't it? Things are going along smoothly. We're traveling paths that we have taken dozens of times before. Suddenly, it seems like the ground gives out from underneath us. What was safe before is now deadly. What was easy and sure is now difficult and scary.

Sinkholes in one part of our lives affect other parts as well. Like a bad traffic nightmare, everything seems to gridlock and come to a dead stop, and it feels like we just can't function. How can we get going again?

When I saw the newscast on Fort Wayne's sinkhole, a familiar song popped into my head. It repeats over and over the phrase "When I was sinking down, sinking down." What were the rest of the words? What was the song writer's solution to being in a spiritual sinkhole this Lenten season? "When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul." Now there's some words worth repeating. "Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul."

Consider this: no matter what is going on in your life, no matter how terrible it may seem, no matter how devastating it may be to the way you usually function every day, it cannot cancel what Christ accomplished. It cannot undo his work, and it cannot break his love. He laid aside his heavenly crown to come among us, not because it would be an enjoyable trip, but to die for you. By his death, he has redeemed your soul from death. By his resurrection, he has promised you new life.

Pastor Jansen