Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Spur One Another On

Scripture Texts: Mark 6:45-58; Mark 7:1-13

Jesus has just walked on water to get to where the disciples were struggling against the winds and the waves. Jesus was not even planning to stop when they call out to him in fear that it is a ghost they are seeing. Once the disciples realize that it is Jesus they settle down and Jesus climbs in the boat. Then they continue their journey across the sea.

The passage tells us something that is easy to miss. The winds and the waves stop but the disciples are still amazed over the feeding of the five thousand. In fact the words that end the discussion reveal the hearts of the disciples were too hard to take it all in. They have just witnessed Jesus feeding thousands of people with a small boys lunch. Then they witnessed him walking on water. Followed by the calming of the entire sea, and their hearts are still too hard to take it all in.

What do we miss that God is doing? It is easy to chastise the disciples as being clueless. It is just as easy to realize we might be right in the boat with them. God is in the business of doing some really amazing things. God is just as active today as God was when Jesus walked the face of the planet. Perhaps the issue is not God working, rather it is our missing what is happening right in front of us. Perhaps it is a case of having hearts that are too hard to take it all in.

God has provided, repeatedly, just like providing lunch for the crowd. God has done some pretty amazing things that defy the known laws of science, just like walking on water. God has even calmed the storms raging around us, even when it is not weather related. The question is do we see it.

We have been blessed with a marriage that God has been at work in since day one. As we have followed God's call of ministry in various places. When death of loved ones has been part of the journey. When we had no clue where the money for basics like food and shelter were going to come from. Through it all we made the effort to keep our eyes open for what God was up to.

In our marriage this has often meant one of us reminding both of us to continue to look for God. We have needed to lean on the other person and their faith until our own caught up. More often than not when one heart was too hard to take it all in, the other remained soft and open. This has made our marriage one where we spur each other on to see what God is doing in our midst that we might otherwise miss on our own.

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