Faithful Friends

There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.

Mark 7:32 (NIV)

Today's verse is from yesterday's gospel lesson. It stuck out to me because of a few things. First, because my pastor pointed out in his sermon today that the man didn't asked to be healed. It was the faith of the man's friends that brought him to Jesus. They brought him to be healed. Second, because of the discussions I've been having with many people over the past two weeks.

I have been having a crisis of faith. Not about whether I believe in God, but in what I feel God is calling me to do. Partly it was brought on by the recent division that has sprung up in the church. But I think that issue was masking the other issue - which was my own self-imposed deadlines on doing paperwork to get ready for seminary. What I realized is that I have been trying to make things happen in my time, instead of God's. The same issue I was having with our church is one that I realized was tearing me up on a personal level.

What I learned tonight in a discussion with Juliet Hutchins, is what I need to be asking God for in my prayers. It isn't, "What do you want me to do?" That's pretty clear to me in both my internal and external call. (By which I mean that I feel like God wants me to be a pastor and it's what I want to do, and that people think I would be a good pastor and tell me so.) What I need to be asking, is, "How do you want me to do it?"

I believe that got me through the last two weeks was not my own faith or my own prayers, because I had nothing to say and no will to pray. Instead it was the prayers of others for me. They knew what to pray, even though I did not. Those prayers saw me through. The faith of others helped me, and I just had to share that. After two weeks of not having a Bible verse to share, I suddenly had one I just had to share.

http://kairosverse.blogspot.com