Skip to main content

A Year in Review: The Story I Had Fun Telling

Well, what do you know, it's another review! 


Luke 8:40-56

They knew she was dead. They knew it!

There was this guy that lived a long time ago. He did things. He did amazing things. And he spoke truth. But the truth was so amazing, people had a hard time believing it. They didn't accept it, or didn't want to accept it. 

But he would do these amazing things anyway. He would do them for free. So word began to spread and people began to call him for help, hoping he would do something amazing for them. 

One such time these parents had a young girl who was dying, so they called this guy. He agreed to come, but as you might imagine, people who can do amazing things often get stopped and distracted by other people who need amazing things done. 

And that happened. He got stopped. By another woman who was in need. She'd been bleeding. Actually she'd been bleeding for a long time. This was in a day and age before reliable healthcare. It was also a day before health insurance. (You can decide what has been gained.)

She came up and distracted this guy who did amazing things. And an amazing thing happened. She stopped bleeding. He didn't apply a band-aid. He didn't need to. He just did amazing things. 

Unfortunately for the parents of the young sick girl, the little girl died while the amazing guy was busy doing amazing things. But when the amazing guy heard this, he told the dad not to worry about it. He wasn't being insensitive, he simply had an amazing plan. 

The only problem was the girl was dead. They knew she was dead. 

The guy who amazed said she was only asleep, not dead. But they laughed at him, because of what they knew. 

So he decided to do something amazing. He took the girl, whom they knew was dead, and told her to get up. And then an amazing thing happened.

She did. 

They knew she was dead. They knew it!

But Jesus, more than just a guy who did amazing things, changed what they knew. It's as if He said, "Is that what you know? You know too much. Here's what I KNOW!" 

He does not depend on our time schedule. He does not require our perspective. He has no need of our knowledge. After all, He is aware that our lust for knowledge got us into the sin-predicament that He fixed. 

Jesus never seemed to bothered by keeping a schedule. Didn't He make last-minute plans to come to dinner with Zacchaeus? Didn't He linger while Lazarus lay dying...then dead? Didn't he discourage Martha from concerning herself over when dinner would be served?

We worry so much over knowing what needs to be done and when. Believe me, I am in the same boat. But perhaps it is time we acknowledge what we don't know. Maybe we should spend more time in awe of what we don't know. After all, if we trust Jesus, then we can know He will do amazing things. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...

Mom

I will travel this weekend to Georgia to celebrate the life of my mom, who passed away just before Christmas.  A Celebration of Life service. That’s what we’re calling it. Because that’s what my mom wanted. She was quite clear on this matter. She didn’t want a funeral. She didn’t want people mourning for her.  As a Christian, she was very certain on her eternal destination and she wanted everything, in her life and death, to reflect that. There will be music, people sharing tributes, and a message given by her pastor.  If that sounds similar to a funeral, I agree. But semantics aside, let me share with you a few more things about my mom. Along the way, you might learn a few things about why I function the way that I do. As I’ve considered my mom’s legacy, a few words have come to mind. Steadfast My mom knew what she believed, lived what she knew to be true, and didn’t really care what anyone else thought about it. I have no inclination to remember my mom as some perfect p...