Saturday, February 26, 2011

Motivating Factors

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: Mark 5:22-23 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

Observation: The leader was emphatic, and understandably so.

Application:
A few moments ago, when I was in the middle of these devotions, our 11 y/o daughter begged me, with a smile on her face, to come and look at something on the computer. She said it was “a matter of life and death.”

Of course I knew she was kidding, but I obliged to get up out of my chair and take a peak at a cute little cartoonish thing she had found on the Internet. She laughed, I smiled, and then I went back to my chair to continue my devotional time.

But I was also secretly glad I got up. As I often tell her quite truthfully (though embellished with a little over-the-top dramatic affect) “you bring joy to my life.” Indeed she does. The inconvenience she requested of me was really not much of an inconvenience at all. And if she were “at the point of death,” you can believe that, much like the synagogue leader in the passage above, I’d be begging for some assistance from anyone who might hold the key to more life.

It’s interesting that Jesus offers such hope to people from all walks of life. Just a couple verses earlier in this chapter Jesus brings a whole new life to a severely disturbed and presumably mentally ill man who was a total outcast in society. On his way to heal Jairus’ daughter, an unclean woman touches him and also finds healing in his presence. It’s little wonder that the disciples remarked, in the previous chapter, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Prayer: Lord, we might not all receive dramatic healings through our prayers to you. But I still trust that there is at least some form of healing through all encounters with you, even if only to more fully appreciate what we already have. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(readings today included: Numbers 19-20, Psalm 28, Mark 5)

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