Ask my family and friends, it's tough to get me to relax. I'm a focused person who likes things done right and efficiently. I do not say that as a matter of pride. Sometimes my driven nature leads me to sin against God and others, something I am praying that the Lord will help me to come to grips with before I get any older. Some of my deepest regrets are the result of putting my work first and failing to create gaps in time to savor a conversation - to just be 'in the moment' - especially when my children were younger. My obsession with checking off the tasks on my 'to do' list has caused me to miss out on some of life's miracles. My face has been so close to the task, I've often be oblivious to the wonder happening around me.
With this dawning realization, I have recently, in the times that I minister at the county jail and in a home for the aged, adopted a new goal for the hour. Instead of seeing myself as going to those places just to teach, or to preach - a dispenser of 'holy truth' - I have prayed that God would let me be a participant in the lives of those with whom I will spend those moments. Yes, I still prepare a message, but I am willing to leave it unfinished or even to adapt my agenda to the conversation that occurs when I am quiet and listen to those to whom God has sent me. Some of you are probably smiling, and thinking to yourself, "And he thinks this is a new idea?" To me, it is! As a result of setting aside my desire to 'finish a job' and instead to enter into the lives of people, I am discovering that there are stories waiting to be discovered, people who bring as much to my life as I bring to theirs. In learning to be a little more flexible, I am finding more wonder, greater joy.
I read a story in the gospel of John about some people who were so committed to their pre-conceptions, so gripped by their ideas about what God wanted, that they missed a miracle that was right in front of their eyes. Take a look -
"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 how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!
What an amazing development, a cause for celebration and rejoicing, right? After 38 years a man is walking, whole, on his feet! You would think that everybody who saw him would be infected with his joy, overcome with his excitement. And, you would be wrong! Read on -
But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jewish leaders objected.
They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!” He replied, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’ ”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.”" (John 5:2-14, NLT)
I am just blown away by their myopia, their fixation with the rules, that robbed them of the wonder. They didn't see a man just healed after 38 years of being crippled. They only saw a man carrying his bedroll in violation of their religious traditions! That was not the only time in Jesus' life when He ran into people who missed the miracle. In the 12th chapter of Matthew, we are told that he healed a man with a deformed hand. There, too, the Pharisees only saw that He did it on the Sabbath, in violation of their prohibition against doing 'work,' so instead of rejoicing that a man was healed, they "discussed plan to kill Jesus."
Those stories remind me about a conversation I had with a woman who struggled to find the peace of Christ through some very difficult circumstances in life. She was growing in faith but another Believer didn't see her heart and the work that God was doing there. The other person only saw that she was still smoking cigarettes and called her faith in question because of it! If it hadn't been so painful for the woman whose sincerity of faith in Christ was called into question, I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the issue. The amazing things that God was working out in the life of the woman was missed by a person who only saw a cigarette in her hand, not the whole of her life! Yes, that is how easy it is to miss the miracle when we're consumed by our own pre-conceived ideas.
I've missed my share of miracles, too, because I was focused on my plans, my ideas, my needs and unwilling to enter into the experience of another person in a way that let me feel their wonder, share their joy (or sorrow), or see what God was really doing in and/or through them.
Today, the God of wonder is at work! And He will be working in your neighborhood, and mine, too. The question is, will we perceive His work? Will we rejoice with those in whom He is working?
Here's a word from the Word. It is Jesus' own words of frustration with those who could not, would not, see what He was doing. Let these words challenge you to celebrate the wonder, to open your eyes to the miracles of the hand of God who is here, now!
To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ”‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”
Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day." (Matthew 11:16-23, NIV)
_____________________
Lord of all creation-
Of water, earth, and sky;
Heavens are your tabernacle,
Glory to the Lord on high!
Early in the morning,
I will celebrate the Light.
When I stumble in the darkness,
I will call Your name by night.
God of wonders beyond our galaxy,
You are holy, holy!
The universe declares your majesty,
You are holy, holy!
Lord of heaven and earth!
Lord of heaven and earth!
God Of Wonders
Steve Hindalong
New Spring Publishing© 2000
CCLI License No. 810055
No comments:
Post a Comment