What are you running toward?
An ad in the Boston Subway proclaimed "Don't ever have to say, "I should have."
Standing in front of it were dozens of i-pod wearers creating islands of personal space.
I wonder when Jesus would have used an i-pod (I'm pretty sure he would have loved the incredible variety of music) and when he would have left the ear buds out so that he connected with what was happening around him.
"Don't ever have to say, I should have."
Even church can become a set of private islands, each plugged into our own pew and our own view, a place to get away from it all. Jesus understood. Everywhere he went people were coming at him with their needs. He plans a weekend on the lakeshore in Gerosene and a crazy guy jumps out at him. Jesus heads back across the lake to Galilee and Jairus runs up, begging him to heal his little daughter. Jesus hardly gets two steps toward Jairus' house and a woman tugs on him hem, embarrassed but desperate for relief form her 12 year hemorrhage.
I guess that's what happens when people get the message that God really cares about them, cares enough to reach out and touch their lives. When they glimpse the real church, the one that knows care is not a list of tasks or even something we do, its who we are. It's Jesus' way of being.
Here's a way to tell whether you're "in or out" of what Jesus is doing. Most folks got really annoyed. The Gerosenes had the guy's craziness safely under control-over there outside town. The people 'pressing in' on Jesus moving toward Jairus' house were disgusted when that unclean woman interrupted their entertainment. When Jesus said "do not fear, only believe," i can do both, most stayed scornfully "out."
Only the real followers, and the child's parents, the woman now healed, went along. "Don't ever have to say, I should have."
What are you running toward?
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