Everything is possible

I love it when I encounter something in the Bible I havn't recognized or considered before.  I was reading in Mark chapter 9 today when I was really struck by a voice that just resonated as familiar to me.  

Setting the stage a little, Jesus was returning from the Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John to discover the other disciples in the midst of a crowd arguing with the teachers of the law.  (Side note: we are told that "as soon as" the crowd recognized Jesus they were "overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him."  Nobody seems to ignite a response like Jesus.)  At the center of it all was a father who brought his demon possessed boy and asked the disciples to throw it out.  They couldn't, and this verbal melee ensued, attracting the attention of a growing crowd.  You can almost hear Jesus sigh and roll his eyes as he says "Oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you?  How long shall I put up with you?"  It struck me today how publicly he expressed his frustration with the disciples.  He sounds like an exasperated parent or teacher.  In my imagination this is directed mostly at the disciples, but it certainly could have applied to the entire crowd.  

Jesus asks for the boy and learns from the father that since childhood the demon has been throwing the boy to the ground with convulsions, gnashing of teeth, foaming at the mouth, and he becomes rigid.  What is more, the father says the demon frequently throws the boy into fire and water trying to kill him.  Can you imagine how tired and frustrated the father must have felt in the situation?  He must have felt exhausted, helpless, and hopeless.  Perhaps not completely hopeless, for he had come to the disciples looking for some relief.  But even that resulted in yet another disappointment when they could not do anything for his son, and instead, an argument broke out with the teachers of the law.  

This is the situation that Jesus walks into, and the father says to Jesus, "If you can do anything, take pity on us, and help us."  I find it interesting that in his exasperation, the request is not only to heal the son, but to help "us."  Because the suffering is not the son's alone.  Jesus' response is one that I think I would often expect from the one who created the universe, but I don't feel like we often see in Jesus.  He repeats back to the father what he had said, "If you can?"  In our culture you expect that to be spoken with incredulousness, or perhaps some mocking.  If you can??  Ha!  You don't believe I can??  I won't pretend to know what was going through Jesus' mind.  But I know that I am tempted to respond with some self-righteous defensive lecture when my ability is questioned.  But whatever prompted Jesus to repeat that phrase, he continues simply saying "everything is possible for him who believes."  

It's the father's response that sounded so familiar and hit so close to home.  His response is immediate and instantaneous, as well as desperate, eager, and contradictory.  "I do believe; help me with my unbelief!"  He does believe, he desires to believe, he so badly needs to believe.  But he needs help to get there too.  I'm pretty sure this is where so many of us often find ourselves.  In places of need, with hope and fear, faith and doubt, wanting help, and needing Jesus to show up and help us to even make healing possible.  

 I know for me it is easy at times to feel small and helpless, overwhelmed either by circumstances, or a task before me.  I know in my head God is able to do all, and be all we need.  But that knowledge is always within a context of hope and fear, and faith and doubt.  Like the father, I somehow can both believe and yet need help to get over my unbelief.  

It's interesting that the bible never follows up to share with us how the father responded to Jesus casting out the demon (if you didn't suspect this ended with Jesus casting out the demon, you can rest easy now).  That omission allowed me to take some time and reflect on my own response to Jesus bridging the gap between the two of us to act in my own life. 

Thank you Jesus that your love, faith, and power are all greater than my own shortcomings.  Continue to grow my faith to help me overcome my unbelief and strengthen my belief.  Thank you for caring.  Thank you for being involved.  All I could ever hope to become is totally dependent on you.  

Carefully laughter please!!

I discovered the website engrish.com via a friend last week.  It is hands down one of the funniest things I've come across in a while.  They simply post pictures of poorly translated signs from asia (mostly China and Japan).  Faith is slightly offended yet still laughs when she sees these.  I understand her skittishness, but she understands that they are also hilarious.  This site brought some much-needed tears of laughter to me.  I hope you enjoy it too.  The best ones are found through the link Most Popular Engrish - although there are sure to be gems found all throughout the site. 

A year in pictures

At the end of 2007 I enjoyed very much creating a review of our year using pictures.  I started the same project again at the end of 2008, but am only now finishing it.  Many of these pictures have found their way into other blog postings, and most, if not all, are on facebook.  But I hope you enjoy seeing them here, in the context of a year in our life.  

Indestructible Joy

Consider joy for a moment.  How much joy do you have in your life?  How many people do you know would describe you as joyful?  I imagine that many people are like me - I have moments of joy for sure, and in general live satisfied with the moment.  I'm not sure how much joy I would say I experience on a daily basis, and I'm not sure anyone would describe me to someone who doesn't know me as joyful.  I find that it is far easier me to understand, access, and live in the peace that Christ gives than in the joy we are to have when Christ lives in us.  It's a them I've visited at various times in my life.  I'm not great at answers - the only one I can come up with is that in the end, I still need more of Jesus.  

Today's musings were prompted by a chapter in the book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper.  I read the chapter today about indestructible joy, and I want to share some of his insights. 

"Salvation is not mainly for the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9).  Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen.  If this fellowship is not all-satisfying, there is no great salvation.  If Christ is gloomy, or even calmly stoical, eternity will be a long, long sigh."

This simple thought struck me because for much of my young christian life I imagined heaven as not being all that exciting of a place.  It wasn't until I experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in communal repentance and worship during a revival that I finally understood the purpose of eternity with Christ.  

Piper made some other points about how from eternity Jesus has been the mirror of God's infinite mirth and about Jesus being the happiest being in the universe.  This is not often the way that we think of Jesus - and I think this is true of Christians as much as those who don't claim Jesus.  He then points out how this joy was not some pie in the sky joy that ignores the pain and suffering that exists in our world.  Jesus was, after all, "a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" according to Isaiah.  Piper states that "Indomitable joy does not mean there is only joy."  Jesus was complex, but not confused, and that "There were divergent notes in the music of his soul, but the result was a symphony."  

It's been a long time since I've connected with a pre-written prayer, but the prayer Piper wrote at the end of this chapter was pertinent enough to me, I'd like to copy the prayer in it's entirety for the benefit of others.  

"Father, it is a great comfort to us that you and your son are never glib and never gloomy.  We delight in the truth that you can be infinitely happy without being callous to our pain.  We stand in wonder that the light of Jesus' joy makes a rainbow in the tears on his face.  We long to be like this.  We want to be strong and unshakable in the joy of our faith.  But we don't want to be oblivious to the grievousness of our own sin or the pain of other people's distress.  O God, fulfill in us the purpose of your Son in promising that his joy would be in us and that our joy would be full.  Make the fruit of the Spirit - joy - flourish in our lives.  Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad in you.  Waken our slumbering souls from the sleep of listlessness.  Take away the lukewarmness of our hearts.  Fan the flame  of zeal for the glory of your name.  May Christ so dwell in our hearts with his indestructible joy that day by day we are conformed more and more to his glad image.  And so may we be a place of refuge and eternal refreshment for a hopeless, joy-seeking world of people who do not know they are starved for the glory of gladness of God in Jesus Christ.  In his name we pray, amen."