Perhaps there is hope yet
Ever feel like God and you are NOT on the same page? Personally, one of the constants in my life, especially here in my new life, is my perpetual need to get with God's programme. I love the idea of it - it's just the actual day-to-day that can get downright uncomfortable and sticky.
But today, in the quietness, God gave me one of those glimmers of hope. In Mark 9:30-35 the Bible says that Jesus deliberately went away and didn't want anyone else to know where He was because he wanted to spend some time alone with his disciples, teaching them some profoundly deep truths about the purpose of his life and ministry. But those disciples did not get it. At all! I wonder just how alone Jesus must have felt in that moment when even his closest and best earthly friends did not understand the most basic of truths about him. As they continue on their way with Jesus, things took a turn for the worse. Not only were the disciples not tracking too well with Jesus about why He was there, but they were totally out to lunch concerning their role and ministry as well. Jesus had just shared with them that He was going to die and they were caught squabbling about who was number one, who was the best, the most important. I am so with them in the fray, more often that I would care to admit - Jesus is in the midst of accomplishing his mission and I'm taken up with inconsequential matters. My one hope in it all, is that Jesus didn't fire all his disciples on the spot and start over again, but instead He worked with them, filled them His spirit and allowed them to continue to grow and be involved as his partners in mission. And just pages later in the Bible we read how the whole world was turned upside down by them.
Perhaps - just perhaps - there is hope for someone like me too.
But today, in the quietness, God gave me one of those glimmers of hope. In Mark 9:30-35 the Bible says that Jesus deliberately went away and didn't want anyone else to know where He was because he wanted to spend some time alone with his disciples, teaching them some profoundly deep truths about the purpose of his life and ministry. But those disciples did not get it. At all! I wonder just how alone Jesus must have felt in that moment when even his closest and best earthly friends did not understand the most basic of truths about him. As they continue on their way with Jesus, things took a turn for the worse. Not only were the disciples not tracking too well with Jesus about why He was there, but they were totally out to lunch concerning their role and ministry as well. Jesus had just shared with them that He was going to die and they were caught squabbling about who was number one, who was the best, the most important. I am so with them in the fray, more often that I would care to admit - Jesus is in the midst of accomplishing his mission and I'm taken up with inconsequential matters. My one hope in it all, is that Jesus didn't fire all his disciples on the spot and start over again, but instead He worked with them, filled them His spirit and allowed them to continue to grow and be involved as his partners in mission. And just pages later in the Bible we read how the whole world was turned upside down by them.
Perhaps - just perhaps - there is hope for someone like me too.
Amen to that, Brenda! There is so much hope for you and all of us. by God's grace. Warmly, Michel in Canada
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