Good Assumptions

I identified with Jarius when I read his story this morning in Mark 5.

(Especially after hearing about some excitement Susan experienced in the Big Apple yesterday.)

My imagination can work overtime, and I can't wait until she's back home here on the farm, facing aggressive roosters, snakes, and driving around in the gator like a wild woman.
She is 14. Only two years older than Jarius' daughter.

I want God to protect her life
just as Jarius wanted to protect his daughter from death.

Jarius was a leader in the synagogue.
He came to Jesus and said,
"My little girl is sick and about to die.
Come and lay Your hands on her,
that she may be healed,
and she will live."

And Jesus went with him
as did a multitude of others.

Along the way, there were interruptions.

A woman was healed when she touched
Jesus' robe and He stopped to talk with
her for awhile.
Then someone came and told Jarius
that his daughter had died
and that he shouldn't
bother Jesus anymore.

But Jesus turned to Jarius and said,
"Don't be afraid.
Only believe."

And He continued on to Jarius' house
and healed his little girl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jarius was clear in what he wanted.
He was desperate.

Come.
Lay hands on my daughter.
So she may be healed.
And live.

I love that Jarius assumed that Jesus
would go with him.

We should assume that Jesus
will go with us.

He may not get there as quickly
as we had hoped.

It may look like other's needs
are more important than ours.

Our world may crumble before
He arrives.

But if we've asked Him to come
we should assume that He will,
no matter how things appear
to the contrary.

We should hold on to His eternal words
spoken to Jarius; spoken to us,
"Don't be afraid. Only believe."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Psalm 138:8~
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord,
endures forever.
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

Lonely Burdens

Someone just wrote something to me on face book
that has me seriously shook up. In a good way.

It reminds me of how I felt when I was apologizing
to Lindsay for not being a better mentor.

She replied, "I am more interested in your failures
than in your perfections because I want to see how you
get up in the morning after you fail."

I was driving when she said that
and nearly had to pull of the road
because it was one of those defining moments
in my life.

And now I've experienced another defining moment.

A defining moment changes how you look at things.

Earlier, I wrote a blog called 'More on Community.
Michelle, who I quoted in that writing,
shared the following words with me this evening.

She didn't copy them from somewhere.

They came from within her as she thought about
community and our fears of being vulnerable.

She was contemplating also, the verse that says,
"Bear one another's burdens and
fulfill the law of Christ."

She said,

"I'm not afraid of your burdens,

your imperfections, or weaknesses.

I'm afraid I won't be allowed

to bear them with you.

Then I bear them alone too.

Because they are still

on my heart."

I don't know what else to say.

Her thought is complete without
any need to explain it
and I am thankful for its meaning
and the sincere loyalty from her heart.

I am thankful, also, for the freedom to trust her
to help carry my load.

Insignificant Praise?

I was reading the story about Jacob, Leah, and Rachel this morning and noticed in particular, the names that Leah gave her children. Just a quick background to this story: Jacob wanted to marry Rachel so he worked for her for seven years and then the morning after his wedding night, discovered it wasn't Rachel in his bed, but Leah, whom he didn't particularly love.(Must not have been much talking going on that night.)
He found the girl's father and said something like, "What the world?" and the father said, "Well, in this part of the country we get rid of our girls in their birth order, so finish out this week with our firstborn, and then we'll give you Rachel but you'll have to work another seven years to pay for her." Alot of 'cause and effect' deception going on here but that's another story.

So, Leah felt unloved.
But then she got pregnant and hopeful.
When she had her firstborn, she named him "Rueben"
meaning, (drum roll please), "a son."
And she said, "The Lord has seen my affliction.
Now my husband will love me."

But, alas.

Well, she had a second son
and named him, "Simeon" which means 'heard.'
She said, "The Lord has heard that I am still hated
and has given me another son."

Then she had a third son and I can relate with her joy.
She named him "Levi", meaning 'Attached.'
She said, "Now my husband will get attached to me
because I have borne him three sons."

Then she bore a fourth son
and called his name, "Judah",
which means 'Praise.'
She said, "Now I will praise the Lord."

Then she stopped having kids for awhile.

But after awhile she got a bit nervous
when she saw that Rachel,
who was barren, had given her maid to Jacob
(so she could call her maid's children her own)
so Leah gave Jacob her own maid as well.

He must have been a busy man.

Well, she called her maid's first son, "Gad"
which means 'a troop comes.'
I wonder if this is where we get the term
'gad about' such as 'gadding about the countryside
with a gaggle of giggling girls'.
It also smacks of "I've got a whole troop of kids,
na-na-na-na-nah" kind of attitude.

Not sure though.

Then maid's son number two was born
and she called him "Asher" meaning
'happy.'
She said, "I am happy, for the daughters
will call me blessed."

I wonder what they had been calling her.

Then Leah hired Jacob for the night
with her son's mandrakes.
(Read it for yourself.
It's complicated.
Or not.)

Okay I'll tell you.
Rachel gave up Jacob for the night
in exchange for Leah's son's mandrakes
because mandrakes were considered
to be an aphrodisiac and good for fertility.
Or maybe she was just hungry for them.
Who knows?

I tell you what.
I don't know who I feel the most sorry for
in this dysfunctional family.
Poor unloved Leah?
Poor needing-to-share-her-husband Rachel?
Poor exhausted Jacob?
Poor maids with no rights?
Poor kids with names full of meaning?

Well, Leah conceived on that night
without mandrakes
and had a fifth son,
"Issachar."
Poor Issy!
"Issy...time to take your bath!"

Or, "Issy,Issy, what a sissy!"
(You know how cruel kids can be.)

His name meant 'Wages'
because she felt God gave him to her
as a wage because she had given her maid to
her husband.

I am not making this up.

Son number six?
"Zebulun"-meaning 'dwelling.'
Leah said, "God has endowed me
with a good endowment;
now my husband will dwell with me
because I've given him six sons."

Wishful thinking.

Then she had a daughter
and called her "Dinah"
which means 'judgment.'
How would you like to have a name
that reminds you that you should have been a boy
and that when you were born,
your mother thought you were some sort
of judgment from God?
Afterall, seven was the perfect number,
and seven sons would surely have won
Jacob's heart.

Perhaps I am reading more into Dinah's name
then there really was.

(If you want to know about Rachel's children
and her maid's children, etc.
you will have to read it for yourself
because this whole mess has
completely worn me out.)

What I want to say is this:
Leah had seven children.

The middle one, Judah,
was named, "Praise."

All of the other names given her children
represented the condition she was in.
But Judah's name
represented a condition she chose.
"Now I will praise the Lord."

And this is what happened with Judah
and his tribe.

His tribe became great.

Jacob, in Gen 49,
spoke the highest blessing over him.
"His brother's will praise him.
He will triumph over his enemies."

Also, Judah "will have a royal authority
and legal authority and will bring forth
the Messiah."

My Bible notes say,
"Out of Judah,
through David, comes the Christ,
who in every action and detail
is a praise to the Father.

The tribe of Judah
(Praise) led the Children of Israel
through the wilderness.

They led in the conquest of Canaan.

And Judah's tribe was the first tribe
to praise David, making him king."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You may feel insignificant and unloved.
The conditions of your life may reinforce
what you believe to be true.

But there is a God
who sees you,
who hears you,
and in the midst of your insignificance,
knows your name.

He loves you.

There is a praise that comes from a place
of sorrow and insignificance
that has nothing to do with happiness.

There is a choosing to praise
even when the conditions are not right
for praising.

There is a surrendering to praise
instead of striving to be loved.

There is a knowing that we are His
and He loves us
no matter how insignificant we feel.

Didn't Jesus say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit-
those who know they are spiritually poor-
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?"

Didn't He say,"It is the sick I have come to help,
not the healthy?"

The Psalmist, a great-great...
grandson of Judah, said it this way,
"Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
the help of my countenance
and my God."

God uses best what happens in the midst of
our insignificance.

Take courage.
Have hope.
And praise Him.