I received news last week of another friend on the road to divorcing her husband. Through the years, we have gone through the season of graduations, the season of weddings, the season of babies, and now, I feel, we are going through the season of divorces. I cried at the news.
Some will say that I am naive to believe that God can fix broken marriages, no matter what.
I say, I would be naive to believe that Christians never go through hard times, but there is no naivety in believing that God can carry us, broken marriages and all, through those hard times.
But how do we fix them, then? What is the answer?
I don't know. Because you are talking about people, and people are not a system; they are unpredictable and they make choices. And it was the sum of many, many choices, made through many, many moments, both joyful and difficult, that led to the point where one or two people said, "I want to end this now."
And when one is in the midst of a broken family, or a broken body, or a broken heart, how does one pray? What does one ask for?
I don't know that either. Sometimes the fog is so thick that one can only cry as one stumbles about, blind.
How perfect that today's sermon was about Jesus and the blind beggars.
These blind men lived for most (or all) of their lives with a physical hardship, and the ostracization and ridicule that went along with it. There were no medical answers or easy solutions for fixing their problems, and they knew it. When Jesus came near, the men did not tell him what to do, but simply shouted, "Heal me!"
Oh, how often am I the blind beggar? But how often do I feel the need to have a solution before I pray for help? Asking God to "Heal me!" seems too simple. I want to be able to say, "Lord, give me the patience to listen to my husband, and the words to respond." So sometimes, when I don't know exactly what to ask for, I don't pray. I don't ask. I don't beg.
I must stop doing that. I was reminded today during communion that it is not what I do, but what Jesus did on the cross. In the case of my friends' divorces, when I feel that there is so much to say and yet, I don't know what to say, I must remember that Jesus can heal whether or not I know the solution.
And only He knows what a person needs. One blind man needed spit and warm hands on his eyes (Mark 8), another needed mud (John 9). A third was healed with words alone (Mark 10).
Who else but God can heal like that?!
Whether it is blindness, brokenness, or a lack of words, nothing can stop God's love and power. Whatever hard times you are going through right now, NEVER forget this:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
These blind men lived for most (or all) of their lives with a physical hardship, and the ostracization and ridicule that went along with it. There were no medical answers or easy solutions for fixing their problems, and they knew it. When Jesus came near, the men did not tell him what to do, but simply shouted, "Heal me!"
Oh, how often am I the blind beggar? But how often do I feel the need to have a solution before I pray for help? Asking God to "Heal me!" seems too simple. I want to be able to say, "Lord, give me the patience to listen to my husband, and the words to respond." So sometimes, when I don't know exactly what to ask for, I don't pray. I don't ask. I don't beg.
I must stop doing that. I was reminded today during communion that it is not what I do, but what Jesus did on the cross. In the case of my friends' divorces, when I feel that there is so much to say and yet, I don't know what to say, I must remember that Jesus can heal whether or not I know the solution.
And only He knows what a person needs. One blind man needed spit and warm hands on his eyes (Mark 8), another needed mud (John 9). A third was healed with words alone (Mark 10).
Who else but God can heal like that?!
Whether it is blindness, brokenness, or a lack of words, nothing can stop God's love and power. Whatever hard times you are going through right now, NEVER forget this:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Romans 8: 37-39
No comments:
Post a Comment