Connected and Reconnected

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)

We don't know why Jesus made him walk out of town with him. Maybe it was so he would begin to trust Jesus a little by walking with him for a while; learning to depend on him to bring him safely to the place he needed to be. We don't know why the first application of mud didn't do the trick. Maybe it was because Jesus knew something about this man, or those who were looking on that day, which made him take that time in order to help others around him come to a greater place of trust and faith. We may not know the reason for the delay in our 'total healing' in some of those areas where we seem to be blind to any form of light. When we make frequent and purposeful connection with Jesus, we can count on our healing to come. When it does, we need to celebrate it with those who had the faith to bring our need to Jesus in the first place!

It isn't until we reach out and take the hand extended to us that our journey toward healing can begin. It is a starting point. We might want immediacy, but Jesus wants connection. We can imagine Jesus walking this man past one obstacle and then another, until he finally has him right where he wants him to be in order to receive his ultimate healing. We might not recognize the obstacles we are avoiding along the way, but with the navigation of our Savior, we are sure to get to our destination. We want the conventional, but Jesus is not afraid to use the unconventional means to do what needs to be done. I am not sure if I would have been all that excited about mud made from spit being placed on my eyes, but I do know God has used some pretty "unconventional" means by which he has opened my eyes to the reality of who he is in my life. I don't want us to count on the "tried and true" as being the only "way" God works within us - he may go about bringing healing into our lives by some pretty "odd" means. Our part is to remain open to the possibilities of what he is accomplishing by his touch.

There were multiple points of "connection" with Jesus in order for this man to realize his full healing. He gained a little hope with the first "mud" application - but he gained much more with each repeated touch from the Savior. It is this frequency of connection which brings us to a place where we "open our eyes wide" so we can see fully what he has been accomplishing not only in us, but around us. The blind man depended on others to help him find his way, and as his healing began, he still didn't have perfect clarity. We often don't realize fully what God is doing in us, but it is that repeated connection with him coupled with our willingness to do as he says that brings us to the place of complete deliverance in our lives. Just sayin!

Surprised by God

O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone! (Jeremiah 17:14)

God does nothing 'half-way' - he takes everything to completion. It may not be in our timing, on whatever terms we imagined in our minds, or even as someone else might think God should be working in our lives. He comes through each and every time - sometimes with blessing beyond measure, and sometimes with correction that is much needed. What he heals, he does unto completion. When God begins to work on an area of your life, don't be surprised when he continues to work time and time again until the mission is complete!

God's work in our lives is sometimes slower than we'd like, and he focuses on areas that we might have thought he was through with a long, long time ago. All of a sudden, he begins to speak to you about that area and you almost take a sudden deep breath as though you were surprised to find him tackling that issue once again. You actually knew it was 'better' than it had been before, but if you were honest with God and yourself, you knew he hadn't completed the work yet. So, he is back at it again - asking you to reveal a bit more, bringing things to the surface you had thought were finally gone, and then he sets out to complete what he began.

Why? We weren't ready for the completion of the work he began at that earlier point - we needed to 'adapt' to the change he began and get that 'settled' in our lives before he could do a bit more. When God 'begins again', it isn't because he didn't do a 'good job' the first time he spoke to us about what needed his healing, it is because we weren't ready for the depth of his work quite yet. It takes time for us to come to the place of obedience sometimes and God doesn't rush to 'push his will' on us. He gives us time to adjust to his will and find peace with his work within us. Then he works a bit more until the mission is complete. Healing isn't immediate - those are miracles. Healing is intermittent and consistent. When God begins 'again' what you thought was 'done' already, just go with it. He has much more for you! Just sayin!

Content to just lay there?

I am going to ask a tough question today, but if we are truthful on this one, we may just realize a healing at the end. How long are we willing to live WITH our troubles before we ask God to get us out of those troubles? For some of us, it has taken us a long, long time to come to our knees, admitting we have been dealing with this 'trouble' longer than we ever should have. Trouble in the form of bitterness, anger issues, hurt feelings, or attitudes of deep regret and shame. While we are living WITH these 'troubles' we are 'hoping' for something to be different, but we don't really come out and aggressively seek our deliverance from them! It is time to admit we have been living 'with' them for way too long and we need God's help to finally move us from our 'placement' INSIDE those troubles.

Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! (John 5:2-9)

"I can't" are two words Jesus can deal with, but until we utter the ones that admit we actually want our healing, we aren't really ready for it! We might not be able to get ourselves from our 'placement' inside the trouble, but Jesus doesn't even need to change our 'placement' to begin the healing. He just needs to hear that we know we 'cannot' and he 'can'. Notice that the man was still on his mat beside the waters of Bethesda when Jesus asked him if he desired his healing. He had to admit he had no one to carry him to the water, but that didn't stop Jesus. Jesus told him to get up 'from where he was' and be healed. I think we might somehow believe our deliverance from the troubles we have endured for so long will require us to 'move' from here to there. Jesus just asks us to get up!

Too many of us stay right where we are, INSIDE the trouble we have endured a long time, making all kinds of excuses for why we cannot move FROM there. For this man, he remained paralyzed on his mat, beside the pool, with no one to carry him from here to there. For us, it could just be that we have lived with all this anger, bitterness, or feelings of deep hurt all because we think we have 'no one' to move us from here to there. The truth is that the 'one' who needs to move is us and we just haven't moved from being 'flat on our backs' to our knees in humble acknowledgement of our deep need. We just lay around in our 'self-pity', never realizing our healing is right there in front of us.

If we want our deliverance from INSIDE that troubling stuff today, we might just need to confess our need and stop making all the excuses for why we cannot be healed. Jesus gave some very specific actions the man needed to take - 'admit you need healing', 'get up', 'pick up your mat', and 'walk'. Our healing begins with confession - not the list of excuses. Our next actions should reveal we desire the change more than anything else in the world - get up and walk! We may have weak or wobbly steps at first, but when we finally move from our back to our knees, we may just be surprised at just how 'strong' that position make us! Just sayin!

Afraid to ask?

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Have you ever prayer a similar prayer? It is a kind of scary thing to ask God to test your heart and mind to see if there is any offensive stuff there, isn't it? You almost don't want to ask because you know there is! When God points out what 'offends' him, he doesn't do it to humiliate us, or even to chastise us. He does it to show us how deeply he loves us - because he wants us to be free of all that garbage that takes up emotional, mental, or physical space in our lives.

To be led, one must submit to the one leading. To be whole, one must submit to the one capable of ridding us of all the stuff that keeps us 'broken' and 'hurt'. When we don't know the way, we seek guidance via a mapping service, GPS, or the good old way of asking someone for directions. Why do we not ask God to show us where our lives are actually being held 'captive' by our thoughts, emotions, or past hurts? Perhaps it is because we have held onto those things for so long that we just don't see any way past them. There is always a way when we ask God to show us the way.

Do you think God really doesn't know our hearts without that 'testing' process our psalmist is seeking? He does, but have you ever considered that the 'testing' process is really a way of getting us to know our own hearts as well as God knows them? Maybe we are turned off by the term 'test', because we think testing has a negative connotation. Yes, testing includes investigation and analysis, but it also involves a certain amount of 'corroboration' - affirmation, validation, and verification. We likely know a bit of what is there, but when we ask God to test our hearts, we are asking him to 'validate' or 'verify' what we believe to be there. 

There is nothing that delights his heart more than to hear us ask for his view into our minds and heart. He won't shame us, but he will help us see the healing that is possible when he is given access to those areas that have held us captive for so long. So, don't hesitate to ask - you might just be dazzled by what you discover with his help! Just sayin!

What if?

Seek God while he’s here to be found, pray to him while he’s close at hand. Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness. (Isaiah 55:6)

"When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice." (William James) We are all broken people - all of us have our weaknesses and we all make mistakes. We all need to make the one supreme choice - will we serve self or Jesus? Seek God while he's here to be found - while he is close at hand, cry out. If we want healing in this world, we all need to abandon our desire to live by our own set of rules. Seek - go in search of; question so as to obtain; go to that place where you can meet a holy God. Where is that place? At the feet of Jesus. There is no other way to God except through trust in the one and only Son of God - Jesus.

Lavish with forgiveness - think about the immense love of God and you will be brought to your knees time and time again. His love is unending and undeserved. It seeks even when we don't. His power is greater than any of what we deem to be our enemies. His grace is deeper than any depth of the pit we can dig for ourselves in pursuit of selfish ambition. Our deepest pain is not beyond his healing touch. But...we must seek him - seek his grace, be open to his healing, and be willing to be lifted from that pit. When something is 'lavished', it is given in great amounts - without limit. God's forgiveness is without limits - it is given and given and given again. The seeker finds unrelenting grace at the foot of the cross.

You have a choice to make - accept the love and grace of God or reject it - you must choose wisely. To walk away from the lavish grace and love of God is kind of foolish, isn't it? Given without measure to those who don't even know how desperately they are in need of it. Making a choice is simple, but we complicate it with our 'what if' scenarios. What if God asks me to leave...? What if he asks me to give up...? What if God says I need to...? What if the path takes me a different way than...? What if...the two most dangerous words in our vocabulary that we could utter when faced with the choice to say 'yes' to Jesus. I have one more 'what if' I'd like you to consider today: What if you don't say "yes"? Just askin?

One Aspirin, or Two?

Deal with your pain or it will deal with you. We have to actually 'process' our pain if we are to ever get beyond our pain. Pain comes in many forms - physical, emotional, relational, and even spiritual. We cannot ignore pain, but we try to push it down over and over again rather than taking it to God or seeking help for it. We hope that ignoring it will help us somehow, but it just brings repeated torment to us.

Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

God's plan is for the pain to drive us closer to him - not further away. When we withdraw from the pain and try to bury it, we are allowing pain to drive us away from God. As much as God wants to be worshipped, he also wants us to be open with him in ALL our needs. Every weakness we have, he stands ready to make us strong, but we have to be honest about what it is we are experiencing.

Pain leaves us very weakened. Weakness taken to God will be made into strength. Nothing will change our past, but remember...God wants to heal our brokenness, regardless of what it is. We need trusted friends to share our pain with - we need to 'process' it and talking with a trusted friend can be the beginning of us getting to the other side of that pain. We will never heal until we begin to allow the wounds we bear to be exposed to the touch of God.

Many see absolutely NO purpose in their pain, but hear this clearly...God has a purpose, even though he isn't the one causing the pain. He will use it somehow, even when we think there is no redeeming quality that can come of it. Pain can be treated by seeking help, or it can be ignored, causing us even further discomfort in the form of shame, resentment, anger, mistrust, and the list goes on. Seek help for your pain. You don't need to live under with all that other discomfort! Just sayin!

So that's what I needed!

Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

There are times I overlook the obvious, believing instead there must be something more to what I am seeing or hearing. I guess this is human nature - we see or hear one thing, then immediately jump to the conclusion there must be some other meaning - either because we don't think things can be THAT simple, or we believe others just could not MEAN what they are doing / saying. I think this is some defense mechanism on our part - protecting us from some things we just don't want to deal with right now, or attempting to believe the best about another just because we don't want to think they could behave that way. In some respects, this is what we do with God at times - we overlook the obvious. He spends time revealing himself to us in a particular manner, then we try to analyze what he is doing so much we overlook the extremely "obvious" in his actions! The problem is - we NEED the obvious to make the "obscure" clearer! The "obvious" actually lends clarity and context to the "obscure". Without the obvious, we don't have the foundation for the obscure. I think this is why Jesus worked so hard for his disciples to see the obvious in his actions and those of others, but then took them one step further to see the obscure in these same actions. A man was healed of his blindness (the obvious) - he was healed to reveal the Son of Man's power (the obscure). A grain is a seed (the obvious) - it only accomplishes it purposes when it dies (the obscure). A cross may be the means of death (the obvious) - but the same cross which brought death to one brought life to many (the obscure). What the obvious provides for us seeing and understanding the obscure is important.

We need to be careful not to overlook the obvious as it applies to God's timing. In context, our passage is dealing with those who were rising up saying Jesus was "late" in his returning to this earth. Jesus had promised his return - where was he? Their intent was to discourage the believers - poking holes in their hopes and faith. The delay is for a reason! The obvious - the "lateness" in his return - is for a more obscure reason - he's giving everyone space and time to change! Space and time to change - the obscure purpose in the waiting. I am glad God gives us both space and time to change. I know I have needed a lot of space. When we ask someone to "give us space", we are really asking for both the flexibility and the freedom we need. God is not a constraining force - he knows we all have a unique personality - he created us that way! We each "work through" things in our own ways - so God gives us the "space" to get to the root of the matter in a way which fits with our unique personality. Some of us need quiet time away from others - like a retreat to the woods. Others of us need to get some good worship music cranking, centering us on him, and then we can get down to business with him. Regardless of the "space" we need - he gives it to us with enough flexibility and freedom to discover what it is we need to do and how we need to respond.

Not only does he give us the "space" (freedom and flexibility to recognize the change process is underway within us), but he gives us the time to change. Not only does he give us the element of time, but he exercises the perfect timing in doing so. We overlook the obvious - we need space and time! He doesn't overlook this when he is after the obscure in us - the realness of our heart dedication. I don't know about you, but I have needed some time to work through things in my life. For example, after my divorce I needed time to work through my bitterness. I wanted to hold onto the hurt - he wanted to give me space to let go of what would only serve to hurt me further. In the space "between", God was at work, revealing the bitterness which was there and then showing me how to release it to him. This is only one example of how God uses both space and time in our lives. In change, both are necessary. None of us have a magic wand - immediately and completely transforming one character trait into another with a magic wand wave. In fact, we all require this "space" and "time" thing in order to get things as they should be in our lives. If you are in the "space" between the old and the revelation of the new, don't lose heart. God's allowing both the space and the time because he has that change clearly in his view - and he knows exactly how much space and time you and I will need. Just sayin!

Nursing a Strain?

It was Peter Marshall who reminded us: "The measure of life is not its duration, but its donation." What has been your "donation" this past year? Have you made a difference in the life of someone? Has your life been an instrument of grace and love? Have you encountered difficulties, but steadfastly stayed the course so others who will come behind you may see plainly what it takes to reach the next destination? If 2017 didn't end on the note you'd hope it would, there is always 2018 to improve the donation!

32 “Do you think you deserve credit for merely loving those who love you? Even the godless do that! 33 And if you do good only to those who do you good—is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! 34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, what good is that? Even the most wicked will lend to their own kind for full return! 35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don’t be concerned about the fact that they won’t repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as sons of God: for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are very wicked. (Luke 6:32-35 TLB)

We don't deserve credit for living the way we should - God gets the credit for that one! He is the one who actually reminds us to not say that thing we are thinking about saying in the heat of the moment, or challenges us to get up and get moving when all we want to do is nurse some wound we have been allowing to fester. Loving as we should, doing good unto others, and turning the other cheek are great virtues and probably can be "learned" by a great many, but to truly say it is our way of life is something we cannot take credit for because it is God in us that makes this truly possible ALL of the time.

There is a stern warning to us in today's passage - even the godless do that. This means it is quite possible to be loving, but without the heart of God motivating that love from within us, it is love that has conditions. We can do good to those who are kind, thoughtful, and compassionate toward us - but to treat someone who cuts you off in traffic in such a loving way oftentimes requires more than a little patience or iota of understanding. We all have "good" moments in life - those times when we actually "get it right" in interacting with others and being the kind of person we are called to be. Those "good" moments are just that - moments. We haven't the power or capacity to make them a LIFE-LONG string of consistent occurrences apart from Christ's Spirit within us.

I am sure many of us enter this New Year with some form of strained relationships - either small or large - it matters not. We just don't always do well with others - not playing well in life's sandbox leaving us wounded and hurt in one way or another. It is possible we are nursing those wounds right here and now. There isn't any power within us in our "self-effort" that can actually restore that riff or heal those wounds. That strain is going to nag at you until it heals! Just as a strained muscle grabs at you over and over again until you finally pay attention to it, so will those strained relationships. There is no other way to deal with them than to begin to "undo" what has been done.

The "undoing" is always much worse than the "doing" ever was. It requires much more effort than we expended in the moments of time it took to bring that strain. If you haven't figured it out yet, healing takes way longer than the injury invoking event! To really heal from a serious strain in our physical body, we seek medical attention. To really heal from a serious strain within relationship, whether it be with another human or with God himself, we turn to the "professional" on that subject and that is Christ! We cannot heal on our own. We may "get through it", but the strain will always niggle at us. To no longer feel the strain, we need the healing touch of Christ. We can "hold out" or we can "go all in" - the choice is ours. The choice is best when it moves us into the arms of Jesus and allows him to heal what we haven't been able to do totally on our own. Then we trust him to show us how to walk as we should so we are not going to create that strain all over again. Just sayin!

A grace-filled touch

Cesare Pavese said, "We do not remember days, we remember moments." There are lots and lots of moments in my lifetime that come flooding into my thought on occasion, some bringing warm feelings of pleasure and others causing just a little bit of pain as a little bit of the memory of an old wound is recounted. I had one such unpleasant memory on my recent trip with my BFF while we were just sharing a little of ourselves. What struck me the most is that she sensed my intensely deep pain as she reached out and just simply touched my arm, and in an instant, without one word from her, the pain dissipated. God has a way of helping us even when we don't recognize we need that help, my friends. In any moment, we never know when a moment remembered can become a time of healing - no words necessary, just the touch of grace.

Praise the Lord! I thank the Lord with all my heart in the assembly of his good people. The Lord does wonderful things, more than anyone could ask for. The things he does are great and glorious! There is no end to his goodness. He does amazing things so that we will remember that the Lord is kind and merciful. (Psalm 111:1-4 ERV)

God's greatness isn't always displayed in big ways. We think Charlton Heston and the Ten Commandments parting of the water kind of moments are those we will remember the most, but it can be the simplest of touches that brings the greatest of memories. The acts of God don't have to be catastrophic to be memorable! There are moments when we don't expect anything to happen, and we are caught off-guard by the greatness of God. There are other moments we look for the big "event" to reveal some majestic thing about God's grace and goodness, only to sense nothing more than his faithful presence with us as we go through them.

Moments define our past more than days. Moments define our present more than any accumulation of days. It is the accumulated moments that make up the memories we will take away. It can also be those moments that we commit to memory that can define us even when we don't want them to give us that particular definition. It sometimes becomes imperative to let go of some moments in order to allow the memories of those moments to no longer be our defining moments, though. The moments we want to define our lives are "grace moments" - those moments in time when God reaches in and just touches us where we most need a touch.

We may not always know which moments have defined us, but in God's faithfulness, he reveals those worth adding to our defined character and those which we should just let go of in order to no longer allow them to hold us bound to that definition any longer. When we have those "grace moments", we need to commit them to memory, recount them often, and allow the newness of their strength to envelope our lives. Just sayin!

Paying attention to pain

Have you ever stopped to consider the process of healing? It is a process, to say the least, for no healing ever comes instantaneously. In fact, if it does, that is called a miracle! Healing begins the moment there is an injury. There is no need of healing until the injury has occurred, right? The moment you cut yourself, the body sets into motion processes designed to "wall off" the bleeding. Even the pain you feel is intended to get you to pay attention to the cut - to guard it from further "insult" such as dirt. As those cells begin to mend, there is much "debris" which must be removed in order for the cells to knit back together. They never go back together in quite the same way, though. In fact, they leave noticeable signs there has been an injury. Maybe this is to remind us that injury is possible when we do something that same way again, or maybe it is to remind us of the greatness of our Creator in healing what no one else could mend!

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins.  Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. (Psalm 51:7-10 NLT)

Beth Moore reminds us that it is a "vibrant relationship with Jesus" that keeps us moving toward healing - keeping the process moving along, so to speak. As we wax and wane in our commitment to spend time with him, our spiritual health and those places wounded within us don't heal all that well. In fact, they "fester" a little until we cannot but help to pay attention to the process of healing we have neglected so long. Most of the pain we experience is really designed to get us to pay attention to that area in our life and to allow Jesus to do the work (the process) of healing. Scabs cover a wound, but under that scab there is a consistent work of healing taking place. Try to remove the scab too soon and the healing just has to begin again. It is much easier to allow a scab to form, take whatever time it needs to disconnect, and then reveal the new tissue underneath!

Have you ever noticed that as long as the scab is there, we keep looking at that area? We pay attention to it - our attention is drawn to the "damaged area" - hardly noticing all the healthy areas around it! We think looking at it over and over again will change it! As long as I have been in this world, there is one thing I have observed - the wound doesn't heal any faster by me watching it non-stop! Sure, I pay attention to it, ensuring it gets the "right attention", but I don't focus on it as though it were the only part of me that mattered! Too many times we only focused on the wounds and forget about all the rest of us that is functioning pretty well. God will heal that wounded area when we focus on what he tells us to focus on, paying attention to not interfere with the process of healing, and then let him do the rest. He is the "process worker" doing what needs to be done beneath that "scab".

We might be tempted to rip the scab off too early, but trust me on this one - that just lengthens the healing process even longer. We might be tempted to just ignore the wound, but when we do, it festers and that makes healing harder and leaves bigger scars. We might just want to pay attention to the niggling of pain, take the wound to Jesus, and then allow him to begin the process of repair so desperately needed. Just sayin!

I don't want this pain anymore!

Those who love discipline love knowledge, but fools hate any kind of correction. The Eternal prefers those who do good, but He condemns those who plot evil. Doing what is wrong keeps everyone off balance and insecure, but those who do right will never be uprooted. (Proverbs 12:1-3 VOICE)

Okay, getting totally "real" with you today I'd have to admit enduring discipline is the furthest thing from "fun" and "enjoyable"! In fact, it is downright hard and very humbling. Without it I'd never have grown, nor would I have realized some of the tremendous things I have come to know and appreciate. Paul tells us to count it all joy when we encounter these rough places, because they will produce things like endurance, solid character, and patience. I am not sure why God uses these tough places as times to create such awesome stuff within us, but it may just be that tough skin of pride we have that just cannot be permeated otherwise! Fools hate any kind of correction - they are content to live in their foolishness - not wanting anything to get through their tough exterior and into the protected or secret places of their heart, mind, and spirit. They want to avoid the things which are uncomfortable because comfort is much easier.

If you have ever had something that gave you a lot of pain, you will understand what I am about to say. At about five years of age, my daughter was at the lake with us one day just prior to us moving from northern California back to Arizona. It was a lovely day and not too hot. I slathered both the kids in sunscreen as I always did, but somehow her light skin took in those sun rays and she actually had blisters by the end of the night the size of quarters and fifty cent pieces all over her back, shoulders and chest! It was a rough couple of days while she endured the pain of that burn. She couldn't rest, her every move caused her pain, and all of the resources of her body were focused on managing that insult to her system. That is what happens with pain - resources are tapped like never before and rest is impossible until the pain is relieved.

Pain doesn't have to be physical - it can be emotional, as well. I almost think the harder pain to deal with is that of the wounded or hurt emotions. They just don't heal as quickly as the stubbed toe or the blistered burn. They leave scars just like the physical wounds do, but they are much deeper and usually not as easily recognized as the more "outward" ones. It seems hard to think that someone who is wounded and in pain might have to endure anymore pain, right? You'd think the way "out" of pain was to walk away from the pain. Rarely does this work entirely well, though, for emotional pain has a way of following you in the form of memories that are hard to be free of later on down the road.

Sometimes the greatest pain relief we experience is when we face our pain head-on and then begin to have someone help us diagnose that pain. When I went through my knee replacement, I had hoped to be out of pain within a couple weeks of surgery. I went through about ten months of excruciating pain instead, until I finally told my surgeon we had to do something to figure out why the pain was there. While I didn't relish a return to the operating room, it became quite apparent this was going to be necessary. In rather short order, the reason for my pain became evident as he explored the knee - bone had grown onto the tendon - something that happens in rare cases. It was causing friction each time I bent the knee and that was the cause of all that pain! A small, less than a few millimeters of bone where it had no business being!

Most of the time, the pain we feel emotionally isn't from the really big stuff - it can be from the tiniest of stuff being somewhere it shouldn't be! Memories tucked away, not really realizing we are "filing" them away, per se. Then in the course of time, they begin to "rub" and cause "friction" that begins to escalate into painful stimuli. That pain demands attention and eventually it will be the thing that consumes us. That tiny thing being where it should not be gives us all that grief, causes us unease and an inability to really find rest, and eventually demands more resources to deal with than we might have ever imagined. While we might not like discipline, nor do we relish the thought of having things which cause us pain exposed so they can be dealt with, it is oh so necessary! Just sayin!

Why is it so hard to heal?

"Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier." (Barbara Kingsolver) I love this expression because it speaks so clearly as to why it is we deeply experience some things so doggone quickly, then take eons to actually have others things even inch their way beneath out skin! Pain jars us - truth sometimes doesn't even affect us until some time way into the distance when we have one of those "ah-ha" moments. I think the degree to which we have been influenced by pain may also be the degree to which we are willing to actually trust someone to be true and reliable - even if that someone is God himself!

DEMONSTRATE Your ways, O Eternal One. Teach me to understand so I can follow. EASE me down the path of Your truth. FEED me Your word because You are the True God who has saved me. I wait all day long, hoping, trusting in You. (Psalm 25:4-5 VOICE)

Pain is an "indicator" of something which we need to address - either to remove ourselves from the thing causing the pain, or to seek attention to properly address whatever it is that has resulted in the sensation of pain.  If we have a toothache, how silly would it be to go to the mechanic down the street to ask him to address it?  Yet so many times we experience deep, inner emotional pain and then attempt to find answers to it from sources which prove to be extremely unreliable to us.  We need to learn to understand pain as an "indicator" in our lives that we are either heading in the wrong direction, have come up against the wrong influences in life, or have buried stuff deep below the surface which now is struggling to remain contained because of how much it has festered there.

The good news is that God wants to DEMONSTRATE his way of healing - of renewal from the pain - to us if we will just bring that pain to him.  It can take us a long time to actually accept that truth in our lives, though.  We may dink around with our pain for a long, long time, then one day just come to the place of desperation where we say "enough is enough". Sadly, there are individuals who go to their grave in deep emotional pain simply because they wouldn't allow God to demonstrate to them the way out of that pain.  When God demonstrates the way out of pain, he is doing more than just pointing the way - he takes part in walking us out of it!  He isn't just setting us in the direction we should go, he is pointing out to us all the things he wants us to appreciate along the way, until we come to the place of realizing he has helped us to uncover the root of our pain and finally deliver it into his hands.

When we see a demonstration of something, we are seeing what can be if we just do the same, right?  How hard is it to actually paint that oil painting just like the guy just "demonstrated" it to us?  Our perception of the ease at which he handles the paintbrush, skillfully combining the colors and strokes to produce the desired image on the canvas can leave us feeling it is a cinch to produce what he has just produced - right?  We slather the pain all over the canvas in generally the same method he did, but our "work of art" differs quite a bit from his!  What was the difference?  He is the artist - we are the apprentice!  We haven't mastered the skill - we are still learning from the master.  There are times when we try to deal with our pain, thinking we know how the Master would deal with it, but simply fall short of actually dealing with it because we aren't equipped to do so.  We need the Master to demonstrate his grace, illustrate his love, illuminate his truth.

As our passage suggests, God doesn't just throw truth at us and expect it to "stick" in our lives.  He knows we need to be EASED into truth a good many times - simply because we have this problem with either self-sufficiency or we have been wounded too many times to count so that we are scarred, damaged, and just plain skeptical of the trustworthiness of anyone in our lives.  This is why he demonstrates his grace and love repeatedly, in many different ways, applying it to different forms of "pain" in our lives - so we will eventually "get" that he is able to be trusted with our heart!  Our heart is the canvas - but what has made contact with that canvas may have left it a mess.  He is the one skilled at taking even the messiest of works and transforming them into clear evidence of his love and grace.

Pain gets in quickly - truth takes a little longer - but the only antidote to pain is truth.  In order to heal, we have to absorb truth at whatever pace we absorb it.  Little by little, it will EASE us into trusting his DEMONSTRATED love and grace.  Just sayin!

Bandaid anyone?

I observed a little photo on Facebook this morning (credit goes to the Warriors of Christ community on Facebook). It was simple, but the thought behind it was pretty significant! Two images - one of a Bandaid, the other of an open Bible. One caption read - "This is for outside wounds" while the other read "This is for inside wounds". Brilliant!  We find all kinds of ways to bind up our wounds on the outside from bandages for those larger cuts or sores, to a small wedge of toilet paper to cover that nick obtained while shaving. In time, they usually heal because they were covered over by something while they had time for a scab to form and the open surface area to close.  Sometimes this is all we need - a simple covering in order to allow time for the wounds to heal. Then there are times when the bandage on the outside means there has been some work done on the inside, as well. 

All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort and share it with others in their own struggles. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 VOICE)

Wounds are best bound up by that which will become the most advantageous for the healing of whatever has been hurt. For example, we don't put a wet dressing on a very wet wound.  We use dry dressings in order to absorb the moisture the wound is exuding itself.  Then there are times when a little salve may also be required because that wound will not heal well without a little help from the medicinal effect of that salve.  The same is true of the "internal wounds" of our soul and spirit - they sometimes heal with the simplest of bandaging, but at other times, they require a whole lot more TLC and a lot of "nursing" to heal.

In that time of healing, the Word of God can be both the bandage and the salve.  It absorbs what needs to be absorbed, covers over while tender areas have a chance to heal over, and brings the necessary "medicine" to that wounded soul or spirit!  God's Word is that which "soothes" the pain and removes the "grime" of sin which hurts us more than we might ever realize and creates wounds way beyond the ability to heal without the tender care of the Great Physician.  It also binds up those areas in our lives where hurts from others just seem to deep to heal from because they have cut deep and left gaping wounds.  Regardless of the wound, the Word of God is sufficient to heal.

As wounds heal, there is a process we might observe of us becoming less and less sensitive to the pain originally caused by the wound.  It is one of the signs we take as a positive sign the wound is healing as it should.  If you have ever cut the end of your finger, every time you go to touch something, you are reminded afresh of the presence of the wound. This is often how it is with those wounds which are closer to the surface in our lives - those things others can "bump up against" and bring a reminder to us of the pain we are enduring.  Then there are those deeper wounds which ache and give us cause to pull away on occasion because we are being crippled by them.  All wounds have a chance to heal when they are given the right attention and treated with the right medicine, though!  Even the deep ones!

It makes no difference the type of wound - the course of treatment is the same.  Allow the Word of God to get into you, cover over those raw areas of hurt and pain, and then allow it to either be the cover which provides a barrier until health is restored, or becomes the means by which deeper wounds are cleaned out, allowing newness and freshness to be restored to the inner spirit.  In time, health comes - but with the right "medicine", healing is sped along in the process. Just sayin!

You have some scars?

On a recent post from Spirit Science on their Facebook page, I saw this little quote which made me grateful for all three: "Wrinkles mean you laughed, gray hair means you cared, and scars mean you lived!" I am seeing more wrinkles, so I must be laughing a lot. I have developed quite a few more gray hairs over the past two years, so I must be doing my share of caring. I have also developed a plethora of scars (both seen and unseen) - so I think I have done a lot of living, as well!  There is a way of living which helps me move beyond those scars, though.  It is life in the presence of God himself.  The internal and external scars of life can only be mended by his hand - no other "fix" remains fixed.  I know this because I have tried to "heal" broken places of my life by my own doing and let me just assure you, the mess I make of it produces nothing more than a Keloid Scar.  In a technical sense, a Keloid Scar is one that doesn't know when to quit!  Keloid Scars just keep getting bigger, rising above the smooth surface of the skin, getting all purple or dark pink in color, and presenting quite an ugly appearance.  My own "fixes" in life are kind of like that - not easily stopped once the course of the "fix" is set in motion; often rising to heights I didn't plan on, and presenting just another thing I want to cover up!

Since you are all set apart by God, made holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a holy way of life: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Put up with one another. Forgive. Pardon any offenses against one another, as the Lord has pardoned you, because you should act in kind. But above all these, put on love! Love is the perfect tie to bind these together. Let your hearts fall under the rule of the Anointed’s peace (the peace you were called to as one body), and be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15 VOICE)

God gives us some pretty specific instructions about "life", which when embraced, help us to actually avoid the development of scars, and in fact, may even bring a little healing to the older scars in our lives.  Hypertrophic scars are big scars, but they remain confined to the original outline of the wound.  I have two of these on my right knee from the various knee surgeries I have had.  Although they healed, they were kind of wide and a little more noticeable than some other scars on my body.  I have a scar from a surgery I had when I was six weeks old - not even noticeable at all anymore.  The difference is probably a couple of factors such as the age at which I underwent the surgeries and the ability of the body to "regrow" or "heal" from the insults to the skin tissue which the scalpel did.  On the other hand, I have a great deal many internal scars caused by not so wisely chosen relationships, pretty bad choices to do things clearly outside of my "safety zone", and just plain foolish decisions.  You are probably not far from this state of affairs, as well.  Those scars aren't visible to the naked eye like the ones on my knee, but they are there, nonetheless.

The hypertrophic scars on my knee are well healed wounds.  They just expanded a little and will eventually shrink in size just through the natural process of healing.  The scars "break down" over time as the body does its work to "restructure" the area where the insult occurred.  How is it we begin to "break down" those internal scars in those areas where either an insult of our own choice / action, or the damage of another's influence in our lives created?  I think the key to this lies in our passage above.  It is by putting on love.  Letting our hearts fall under the rule of the Anointed's peace - now that is a word picture which really helps us understand "where" it is healing starts and by whose hand healing is produced.  I didn't heal from my arthritic knee - the skilled hand of an orthopedic surgeon "restructured" my knee, complete with metal components, into a very workable knee.  It isn't "perfect" as some view perfection, but I get around pretty well now and have a whole lot pain than I did before.  Am I pain free - no.  Do I move and enjoy life more now - you bet ya!

The difference comes in who it is that does the work of "restructuring" the damaged areas of our lives.  It isn't going to turn out too well if it is always us!  We just don't have the means by which to "heal ourselves".  The sooner we recognize this, the better.  The same thing holds true of our damaged relationships - we don't hold the power by which to totally restore them, either.  We might have some of the pieces - such as forgiving one another and letting go of those offenses - but we don't possess all we need.  As our passage points out, it is as we come under his authority and we begin to embrace a lifestyle of love that we begin to see "restructuring" or "remodeling" of relationships.  Our emotions (the heart) have a way of keeping us attached to the past actions of another which we somehow associate with the break in relationship.  It is when we submit those emotions, and all the "rights" associated with them, that we begin to find the remodeling occur.  Remember this - just as with our bodies, when our emotions have been assaulted, regardless of by our own doing or that of another, it takes a while for the remodeling to occur.

Healing is a process - letting go is a one time thing - but healing from the wounds created by either our misdeeds or those of another takes a little time.  If we rush the process, we can sometimes make the scars a little "keloid" in appearance.  Why?  The wounded emotions don't have a chance to heal from the inside out.  God goes to the heart when he begins healing because he knows for healing to be "done well" it begins on the inside and then finishes in what we can see.  Regardless of the type of wound we have experienced - the healing all begins the same way.  As we submit to the hand of the one skilled in producing only the best outcomes for our lives, his peace will begin to settle in.  As that peace settles in, our hearts become ignited with the passion of his love.  As that love begins to burn hot within our lives, the remodeling of our lives reaches "near perfect" measures.  Yes, there will be evidence of old wounds.  I think they may be there to remind us not to do some of those things again which produced the wounds in the first place!  But...sometimes they are there to remind us of how much that other person really matters to us and how deeply we have loved.  Just sayin!

Sometimes it takes more than once to "get it"

There is something pretty important we need to realize as we come to Jesus. As we come, we often expect the immediate healing of all our anxieties, hang-ups, and long-held issues.  The frustration comes in knowing there are things in our lives which Jesus forgives and then he "deals" with them for a while until we realize they are finally gone.  I often throw clothes in the washer without doing a thorough inspection of them to see if they have any noticeable stains on them. When I remove them, I usually try to look at them a little bit before I put them in the dryer because we all know the heat of the dryer "sets" the stain in deeper. There are those occasions when I just plop and throw - not really paying much attention to them either when I put them in the washer or when I add them to the dryer.  Guess what usually happens when this occurs - yep, there is inevitably some big old stain right down the front of one of mom's tops, or on my favorite pair of pants.  Now I have to work harder to get the stains out, taking not only extra effort, but extra time to work on them until they are gone.  Just as with the stains on the clothes, the stuff in our lives which gets "paid attention to" gets dealt with in pretty short order compared to the stuff we just let "get by". 

Jesus and his followers came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch the man. So Jesus held the blind man’s hand and led him out of the village. Then he spit on the man’s eyes. He laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see now?” The man looked up and said, “Yes, I see people. They look like trees walking around.” Again Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes, and the man opened them wide. His eyes were healed, and he was able to see everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25 ERV)

We "come" to Jesus just as we are - complete with all our hang-ups and messiness.  We sometimes "stay" with Jesus for a while with a few or more of these hang-ups and messy areas in our lives - not because he doesn't have the capability to immediately deal with them and remove them, but because there is something which happens in the continual "washing" which occurs.  In those moments of seeking him out again and again to finally remove the "stains" of sin from our lives, we find there is a connection made much like the connection made when he led this blind man out of the village.  

1. At first, we may not even realize how to get free from those things which have been "with us" for so long in our lives.  This is where we need the faithfulness of friends who will walk with us to the place we come face-to-face with Jesus.  It is important to note that this man might have known he was in the presence of Jesus, but he didn't yet see Jesus fully for who he was.  The friends were the ones interceding for this man - it wasn't the man begging for his healing - it was the friends.  I think we might just miss that when we casually read over this passage.  We need each other - plain and simple.  We may not recognize how much until we find our friends interceding for the mess or lives have become.

2. It isn't until we reach out and take the hand extended to us that our journey to healing can begin.  This is a starting point - taking the hand of Jesus.  We might want immediacy, but Jesus wants connection.  In those moments of holding the hand of Jesus, I imagine Jesus walking this man past one obstacle and then another, until he finally has him right where he wants him to be in order to receive his ultimate healing.  We might not recognize the obstacles we are avoiding along the way, but with the navigation of our Savior, we are sure to get to our destination.

3. We want the conventional, but Jesus is not afraid to use the unconventional means to begin within us what needs to be done.  I am not sure if I would have been all that excited about mud made from spit being placed on my eyes, but I do know God has used some pretty "unconventional" means by which he has opened my eyes to the reality of who he is in my life.  I don't want us to count on the "tried and true" as being the only "way" God works within us - he may go about bringing healing into our lives by some pretty "odd" means.  Our part is to remain open to the possibilities of what he is accomplishing by his touch. 

4. There were multiple points of "connection" in order for this man to realize his full healing.  He gained a little hope with the first "mud" application - but he gained much more with each repeated touch from the Savior.  It is this frequency of connection which brings us to a place we "open our eyes wide" so we can see fully what he has been accomplishing not only in us, but around us. The blind man depended on others to help his find his way, and as his healing began, he still didn't have perfect clarity.  We often don't "get fully" what God is doing in us, but it is that repeated connection with him coupled with our willingness to do as he says that brings us to the place of complete deliverance in our lives.

I don't know why Jesus made him walk out of town with him.  Maybe it was so he would begin to trust Jesus a little by walking with him a ways - depending on him to bring him safely to the place he needed to be.  I don't know why the first application of mud didn't do the trick.  Maybe it was because Jesus knew something about this man, or those who were looking on that day, which made him "take his time" in order to help others around him come to a greater place of trust and faith.  I don't know why the man was told to go home and not go into town, but maybe it was because Jesus wanted him to celebrate this beautiful thing with those he was closest to first.  We may not know the reason for the delay in our 'total healing' in some of those areas where we seem to be blind to any form of light streaming through, but trust me on this one - when we make frequent and purposeful connection with Jesus, we can count on our healing to come.  When it does, we need to celebrate it with those who had the faith to bring our need to Jesus in the first place!  Just sayin!

Victim be healed

A victim is someone who is actually cheated or deceived by their own emotions because of the actions of another.  It is quite easy to slip into the role of "victim" whenever we feel like we have been wronged - someone has done or said something which makes us feel threatened, misunderstood, "used" in some way, etc.  There are people who really are victims, though. They have been truthfully harmed by another and it is more than emotional scars they may be dealing with.  They could have injuries to their body, or perhaps have suffered an assault on their finances.  Either way, they all have something in common - they have had the actions of another negatively affect their lives.  There is something God wants us to see, though - our current circumstances are not permanent - he has the ability to make those areas damaged by another into something honoring and glorifying for his use.  This should give even those who have suffered the most destructive of actions some sense of hope and encouragement today.

God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet. He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel. God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. As parents feel for their children, God feels for those who fear him. He knows us inside and out, keeps in mind that we’re made of mud. Men and women don’t live very long; like wildflowers they spring up and blossom, But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly, leaving nothing to show they were here. God’s love, though, is ever and always, eternally present to all who fear him, Making everything right for them and their children as they follow his Covenant ways and remember to do whatever he said. (Psalm 103:6-13 MSG)

How does God make bad stuff in our lives "come out right"?  For anyone who has suffered the terrible destructiveness of rape, or perhaps the awfulness of physical abuse, there may not seem like a way out of the pain and memories associated with such violent and violating attacks.  Yet, I have met countless women who share their testimonies of God's grace and mercy showing them a way out of the pain and a release from the continual torture of negative memories.  Do I fully understand how God does that - no.  Do I trust he can and does do it - yes.  Why?  I see evidence in the lives of those around me and because I trust what scripture tells me about the character of God.  His entire make-up is to extend grace where it is undeserved and to heal what cannot be healed by human touch.  

As much as we can count on God separating us from our own personal sins, we can count on him separating us from the sins done against us by others not aware of how their sins affect us.  Violating sins such as rape and physical abuse don't just go away - they leave scars.  God has a way of separating the pain associated with those scars away from us, though.  It may be keenly linked to his ability to help us release when no release is deserved - by giving us grace to extend grace to the one who harmed us.  As I said, I don't fully understand how God does this, but I know he does because I have seen it in the lives of those around me.  What one thing I did see in the lives of those who rose above their pain is that they walked steadily in the things God showed them.  In their consistency, God turned ashes into a thing of beauty.

This may be paramount to the very healing we need today in our own lives. Maybe it isn't that we have been raped or physically violated by someone's anger and hurtful blows, but our pain is no less significant to our heavenly Father.  He "feels" the pain of his kids and his heart is turned toward those who will cry out to him for their pain to be removed.  Too many times we play the part of "victim" so well - holding onto the pain - not because we really want to, but because we don't think it matters to him.  This is sad, but true. 

We somehow discount his love for us and his care over our lives just because someone was "able" to hurt us in some way.  Truth be told - no harm befalls us that is not seen by him and deeply experienced by him.  We often associate harm coming to us as God "allowing" for bad things to happen to us, or because he doesn't care about us. The exact opposite is true - God never desires for the bad to come.  We live in a fallen world - bad is part of mankind's fall.  It doesn't mean God doesn't love us or care deeply for us, but because of man's freewill and the fact he possesses a sin nature, evil is in this world.  When we deal with evil against our own lives, God's heart reaches out to us to quickly heal and restore.  We just have to reach back.

I don't proclaim to have all the answers here, but I do know this - God has all victims in his hands.  His desire is to embrace their pain - to ease their suffering and to restore their heats/minds to wholeness.  If you find yourself holding onto your pain, God's cry to you today is to let him take it.  He knows how to restore what damage is there.  He knows how to extend grace and mercy so as to bind up the wounds.  All we need to do is remain consistent in allowing him to take that pain - just sayin!

Is God meeting you on the "inside"

Ever heard that little verse:  Don't Worry, Be Happy?  Well, try that one on for size and you are likely a little like me - worrying is just a part of life and it is kind of "Pollyanna-like" to just think you can shut it off and "Be Happy".  One thing I know for sure - God wants his kids "happy" - but we get this word "happy" confused with a state of mind or euphoria.  Instead, we need to learn to think of this as a lifestyle - one of being blessed, even in the midst of conflict.  If we consider some of what we have heard to be true about God, we might just begin to see how this is actually possible.  First, he is listening. Now, one of the things which contributes to anxiety more than anything else is the belief no one knows the situation we are in.  It is comforting to know God hasn't forgotten to listen to our needs.  Second, he is ready to rescue.  If we are worrying, we aren't looking for a rescue, but are looking for a way to rescue ourselves!  This may not seem significant at first, but trust me, God's rescue is always going to be better than our own!  Third, God is not remote to our lives - he is right there at the ready.  There is nothing we need more when we are in the frenzy of worry than to "catch our breath".  Who helps us do that better than Jesus?  Last, but definitely not least, God is there EVERY time we need him - all those times we are "in trouble", he is there.  It brings me a great deal of comfort knowing even when I am "in trouble", he is right alongside to help me out of the mess I managed to get myself into!

Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.  If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.  Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time.  (Psalm 34:17-19 MSG)

I once heard it said that happiness is not based so much on what it is we gain in life, but what it is we lose.  This is definitely contrary to human wisdom, is it not?  Yet, if you stop to consider it, the truth comes through - when we lay down our lives, all our anxieties, we find we are on firmer ground than we were when we were trying to carry it all ourselves!  One of the toughest things we have to do in this life is to "process" life.  Stuff comes at us at speeds which sometimes overwhelm us and cause us not just a little angst.  We get overwhelmed with life.  One of the things we are called to do is to "process" through our problems, not let them pile up one on top of another.  When we allow the "pile up" to occur, the anxiety often rises to the level of being "undone" by life!  We are not asked to "process" our problems on a purely human level - God comes to our aid to assist us in processing through them.

One of the things we need to guard against when life deals us a few problems is the desire to believe what the devil tells us about them.  It is his goal to get us to believe the problems are God's way of "dealing with us" or "getting even with us" for something we have done / not done.  Wow!  This gets us all messed up when we actually believe this story of his!   It gives Satan nothing but extreme pleasure when we begin to blame God for stuff.  One thing we need to remember:  God does not HURT us!  Nowhere in scripture do we find any truth which says God is out to get us, bring us down, or take us down a pathway which will destroy us.  This would be contrary to God's extreme love for his creation.  In fact, if we read our passage again, we see God cares, is totally aware of our circumstances, and wants to help us if we will only give him the chance.

When life gives us challenges, there is a tendency to allow these challenges to affect our heart.  Nothing pleases God more than to give him our hearts so he may keep them safe in his care.  When we give him our heart, we experience a closeness, even in our brokenness.  Nothing heals brokenness better than being close to someone!  No amount of suffering is ours to bear alone.  This is something we need to hear and begin to believe - God doesn't want us to "go it alone".  We remain "in" our pain until we invite God "into" our pain with us.  We ask God to take it away - he asks us to invite him into it.  Now, this may seem a little odd to some, but even in the pain, God has a way of revealing something to us we would not have known otherwise.  So, instead of always asking for the pain to go away, it might do us well to ask God to come into it and do with it as he sees fit!

Keep this in mind:  God seldom moves the way we want him to.  I don't think my limited understanding of life's problems is the best means of dealing with them, but I have a "plan" for God which I often try to "convince" him is the best!  You might just find yourself to do the same thing.  Once we come to the place of seeing today's worries as a means of giving God access to areas of our lives otherwise untouched by him, we might just be surprised at how differently he moves into those "worries" in ways we may not have imagined. Just sayin!

Where do we find mercy?

Blind, crippled, and paralyzed - all lined up, neatly tucked away, just waiting. The sheep gate was the first gate rebuilt when Nehemiah set about the work of rebuilding Jerusalem.  This gate had the unique purpose of being the "entry point" for the sacrifices which would be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Now, don't you find it a little interesting that the blind, crippled, and paralyzed were lined up along the pathway of "sacrifice"?  I had never really connected the two before, but it struck me this morning - these people were waiting for their healing along the pathway of sacrifice!  Blind - those without sight, plunged into darkness, or at least the haziness and blur of vision.  Crippled - those who lived with some condition making them less than perfect.  Paralyzed - those unable to make a move on their own, debilitated by that which consumed them.  All lined up neatly, tucked away in their alcoves, waiting.  I hadn't see that before either.  All had a "place" along the pathway.  A place of waiting - and some in "waiting" for a long, long time.

Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”  The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”  Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.  (John 5:2-9 MSG)

It should come as no surprise that the "pathway of sacrifice" has a "pool" called Bethesda - the house of mercy.  Let that sink in a moment.  The pathway upon which the blind, crippled, and paralyzed lined up was that of sacrifice.  Their constant daily vigil was at the place of mercy.  Does that give you a moment of pause?  Some were there 38 years!  A place of provision - of hope - of faith.  This is a long time to be in the place of mercy!  Maybe it will encourage some of us who have been in the place of mercy for a lot longer than we ever expected to be - waiting, anticipating, and being encouraged.

Encouraged?  How were these men and women encouraged?  They still had debilitating conditions - what would be encouraging about waiting around with a bunch of invalids for upwards of 38 years?  Every single time the "pool" stirred, there was a healing.  Let's look a little at the healing sought by the three groups:

* The blind - lacking the ability to see in the physical sense - they could only listen with their other senses.  Sometimes this is our condition of "vision" - we just don't "see" what it is we need to see - we don't "compute" the image of what we behold as possibly intended for us.  Even those with some sight, though blurred and unclear, tucked themselves into these alcoves just waiting for the stirring of that which could set them free from their "blurred" vision.  Isn't this the way of mercy?  As we present ourselves as sacrifices - laid out at the feet of the one who can give mercy - we begin to listen with all our "senses".  We don't rely upon what we "can" see, but on the hope we will "see clearly" once mercy has had its way.

* The crippled - impaired in some way - they could only imagine a life without the limitations of their disability.  Have you ever stopped to consider the term "disability"?  In the most literal sense, it means "apart" or "away" from the ability to perform a certain thing.  Isn't this the condition in which we find ourselves finally concluding that apart from a touch of God's mercy, we will be unable to ever have the "ability" to perform the way we hope?  In our own effort, we are all disabled.  In God's effort, the ability is his!

* The paralyzed - those who had the inability to act on their own - brought to a place of helpless stoppage.  What is the one most paralyzing emotion?  Isn't it fear?  It brings us to a place of "stoppage" - unable to act because we are consumed by the imagined or perceived threat.  What is fear's exact opposite?  Some would say faith.  Others might say courage.  What is fear's most needed intervention?  Mercy!  

So, they lined up - all in their alcoves - all anticipating the "mercy" they so earnestly needed.  Each came by the same road - sacrifice.  Some of us seek mercy, but until we find ourselves in the place where mercy is, we may not find it!  God doesn't desire us to "go to" some particular place for his mercy, but he does desire for us to recognize a few things.  First, we have to recognize our need.  These people all knew they had need of mercy!  They were there because their only hope was mercy.  Second, we come by the path of sacrifice - not some physical offering of a lamb or a goat, but by the laying down of our "dis-ability".  We rely so much on our own ability, while God's mercy tenderly beckons for us to lay it down in order to be embraced by his! 

Not sure what "mercy" you seek today, but I know his ability awaits those who take the first step of placing themselves exactly where it his mercy dwells.  It is at the feet of Jesus where mercy dwells.  No other path will yield the results found there.  Just sayin!

The tip of her finger

Have you ever taken a "risk of faith"?  So intent on getting something you desperately needed so as to push through anything in your way - giving it your all?  We find ourselves in many a tough spot on occasion, but I wonder how many times we wait until we are right there in that spot to begin to take the risk of faith.  If we were probably honest, it isn't until someone tells us the bad news of a reduction in workforce, gives us the "incurable" verdict, or leaves us in the lurch with no way of escape that we often come to a place of desperation which drives us to "risk" our faith.  This morning, we look at a woman who lived with a debilitating disease - not for a matter of a few months or years, but for over twelve years.  The very life was being taken from her by a constant issue of blood.  Today, most women would consult their doctor, be scheduled for a surgery to stop the bleeding, and then be on their merry way.  Not the case for this woman.  It was either a "risk of faith" on her part, or deal with the debilitation until it had totally consumed her.

“Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!"  (Mark 5:34 MSG)

I have explored this passage in Mark time and again, but this morning, I want us to see something I had missed until now.  You see, she took a "risk of faith" for which Jesus commended her.  So, I want to learn from this woman's risk - her willingness to do what it took to accomplish her healing.  If we were  honest, we might just need this type of "risk-taking" faith in our own lives.

First, see her need:  An issue of blood for twelve years.  This would have left her not only severely anemic, but totally tired all the time because the very ability to regenerate her body with much needed oxygen and nutrients was impossible in her present state.  She could not have worked a job, much less taken care of a family.  Her state was probably one of needing someone else to tend to her basic needs most of the time.  In the culture in which she lived, her "job" was the care of a family, not the other way around.  So, in the eyes of the community, she was "non-contributory" - her illness made her a drain on society, not a contributing member.

Next, see her extravagance:  She spent all she had looking for a cure.  The scriptures tell us she had seen a "long succession of physicians", each offering her some cure, but leaving her worse than she was when we came.  In fact, it tells us they took all of her money.  She was penniless - not only plagued with illness, but destitute.  She had no means of income in her present state and that which she had to her name was all gone.  Sometimes we don't press in to get what we need until we experience the intensity of destitution.

But...here's what I want us to see - her pursuing desire.  She wasn't content to just stand along the wayside, crying out, hoping for the healer to "notice" her need.  In fact, she did what she would have born the scorn of the religious elders for - she, the unclean, mingled with the "clean" in the crowd, pressing through until she had slipped through all of them - close enough to touch the hem of the garment of Jesus.  Not with her whole body, but with the touch of her finger tip.  For, she knew his power only needed a connection point to do what no other could do.

She pushed, pulled, and wriggled her way to the very presence of Jesus.  She could have simply called out, asking for her healing, but she didn't.  Does this strike anyone else as unusual?  Those in the crowd were beckoning, looking to get the notice of the healer.  All except this woman.  She just waited until she was close enough - and she did not let up until she was!  Then, she simply reached out.  Something was different for her - she was pursuing, seemingly unnoticed, but determined on one point of connection.  Do you realize this is all Jesus really needs?  One point of connection. 

One point of connection stopped Jesus in his tracks.  All the crowd stood still, the world probably seeming to stop for this woman.  She knew her need was met, but she thought she'd just be able to touch him unnoticed.  The simple truth is we can never touch Jesus unnoticed - for it is impossible to touch Jesus and come away the same!  The pursuit of her heart may have been driven by the need in her physical body, but the risk of her faith was driven by her spirit.  This "spirit" connection caused Jesus to stop in his tracks - to take notice of not only her physical need, but her heart need, as well.

She pursued with all she had.  The very demanding effort of working her way though the crowd would have nearly exhausted this woman.  Her risks went beyond the taxation of her body, but to the very risk of allowing her spirit to connect with that of Jesus.  So, in determined pursuit, she pressed in - not content to call from the wayside, but determined to make a connection with Jesus.  Jesus cannot help but notice the one who pursues in such a manner.  When the desire to press past all obstacles becomes the focus of the heart, that "risk of faith" is noticed by Jesus.  It doesn't take a full-on embrace to create the connection - just simply the tip of a finger extended to him in hope.  Just sayin!

Custom-made jewelry

I have one "custom-made" piece of jewelry - a pinky ring.  It is made up of some gold from various pieces I had, but the most precious part of the ring is the three diamonds channel set at an angle into this ring.  They are from my mom's wedding band.  After dad passed, mom knew I had a desire to have the ring made.  I had only one diamond to place there and was considering placing a couple of amethysts next to it, but she offered the diamonds.  The "value" of the ring went up right there!  It wasn't just the physical value of the ring, but the value the heirloom portion of this ring!  She gave me a "piece" of what dad and she shared - nearly thirty years of great love!  No amount of planning on my part would have produced the same ring!  I have worn this ring every day for twenty plus years.  It has worn an indentation into my pinky finger!  

The right word at the right time is like a custom-made piece of jewelry, and a wise friend’s timely reprimand is like a gold ring slipped on your finger.  (Proverbs 25:11-12 MSG)

What you may not know is the gold which went into making this ring was from my wedding band and engagement ring.  After my divorce, I didn't know what to do with the rings.  One day, it came to me to allow them to be "re-created" since God was deeply at work in my life "re-creating" me from the inside out.  In fact, it became important to me to have these rings made into something which spoke a message to my heart each time I looked at the ring.  

The "gift" of the three small diamonds made the ring perfect!  They remind me of the everlasting love of my parents - their support and commitment to me over the years served to bring me through many a bad spot - just like the love of my heavenly father.  Mom and dad never lost hope - even when I was wayward and wandering.  They prayed for my safety and were there to always welcome me back when I had strayed.  Their love for each other stood the test of many a trial - the memory of this love for each other and for me goes with me now each day in a very "physical" reminder - my little ring.

You see, as I look at this ring, it is not a wimpy band - it is solid.  God's message to me in those early years after my divorce is reflected in the solidness of this ring.  He always kept (and keeps) reminding me he would surround me with his "solidness".  His "rock-solid" foundation became ever more solid with each step I took toward the healing of my heart.  In turn, his "surrounding" grace has always been what leaves an "impression" on my life.  Just as the ring has produced an "impression" on my finger, his grace has left its mark in my heart!

It also has these three small diamonds - none bigger than the other.  They sit at an angle - crosswise.  I wear this ring on my left hand - one finger removed from my ring finger where the wedding band had been.  The three diamonds which are set deeply into the solidness of the gold speak to me of the tangent my small family took as a result of the divorce.  We had each other, none more important than the other, none more in need of God's grace and protection than the other.  In the midst of being a little removed from our original position as a family of four, we were surrounded by God's protection and his love.  

A simple ring, but it speaks volumes to me.  Our writer today reminds us of the "value" of the words of a friend - they are like a custom-made piece of jewelry slipped on our finger.  They are well-spoken in the right timing.  Just as the time came for the old rings to go and the new to be fashioned, so there are times in our lives when the old has to go and the new is beckoning to begin.  In these moments, the words of a friend are often the catalyst by which change begins.  

There is much which can be said about the value in listening to the words of encouragement from a friend, but our writer really reminds us of the reprimand of a friend.  Some of the greatest moments in my life have come when a friend has taken time to "set me straight" by giving me the right word at the right time.  Sure, the message might has "stung" a little at first, but it isn't until we peel the scab away from a sore that the scar really is free to heal and fade!  There are times we need to see the "ugliness" of our "scabbed lives" in order to create a desire to be free of the "scabs".  The first step in healing is in recognizing we are injured!

We all have things from our past and present which we might not know what to do with - things which resemble the "ugliness" of "scabs".  Sure, the injuries are covered - but not with the beauty of the newness God desires to bring forth.  In the aptly spoken words of a friend, the scar may be exposed.  In the continued encouragement of their continued "speaking into" our lives, the scar eventually fades and is only a subtle reminder of the injuries of times past.  Just sayin!