On Healing
This month I have been reflecting a fair amount on healing and the role that it plays in people's lives. We've been doing a sermon series on this idea of "being sent" by God into the world and how much we get to be a part of God bringing life to people in various ways when we allow ourselves to be on mission with him. We've also been going through the book of Mark chapter by chapter in something we call Discipleship class. Every Friday from 12-2, about 25-35 students from our ministry gather in an upstairs room in the library and participate in unpacking a chapter of Mark at a time at a higher learning level. The goal is to help us (students and staff alike) learn who Jesus was by watching his life unfold, and in some sense to "grow up" in our faith by learning about it at a graduate level. We teach this class out of the NIV application commentary, and teaching through some of this stuff has made me so amazed at Jesus all over again. Because once again here I see Jesus, touching a leper when he could've healed him from afar. Having more patience with his disciples over the course of years than I sometimes have with people over the course of a week. Honoring women in a society where they were marginalized, and choosing to invite people's interest and questions rather than forcing our beliefs and actions. Look closer, look into what I say and learn about me through that. I'm so thankful we have a God who invites us to look closely at him and know him.
I think the parts of his story that reach me the most though is the way that he healed. He displays the immensity of his love for people so much to me in the details of these healings. He healed people personally. He could have walked into a town and declared the whole of the sick in the towns cured from the city gates and moved on, but our God is a relational God. He healed people in personal interactions. In the case of the woman who was bleeding for years, he could have known she had been healed and moved on, but he stopped, looked for her, and acknowledged her for her faith and her incredible audacity to approach him through a crowd of people when she was considered totally unclean during her time.
One of my absolute favorite parts of working in campus ministry is that I get to see God healing people even still. College is a very lonely place for a lot of people, and I see so often God using the students in our ministry to go meet those people, decide to pursue a real friendship with them, and over time those people's lives are flooded with meaningful relationships. That brings healing to them. I also think of people who come in with so much pride and arrogance, (much like myself) and God uses students who take time to weekly study scripture and spend time with that person. Through challenges that scripture and that relationship bring up, I see that pride eroding and being replaced with humility and a desire to put others before themselves. When you see people who learn to seek first to understand others, then to be understood, that brings healing to both us and other people.
It's not easy for us to ignore the parts of our world that have pain and suffering. Nor should we seek to ignore those things. But this month as I wrestled with focusing so much on those things, God reminded me through a few different avenues in my life that we have to balance the reality of those situations with the fact that God is still good, he's very much still working and bringing healing to people even in those situations, and that shouldn't stop us from bringing that healing that God gives to people around us, one person at a time. It may sound trite, and it's certainly the cliff notes version of what all I feel like God was showing me in this area the past few weeks, but it's been such a good reminder for me nonetheless.
I did an abysmal job of taking pictures this month for you guys, and I'm sorry about it.
We had our Pizza Theology yesterday where we brought in a guest speaker and talked about the Sermon on the Mount. I'll talk more about it next time, but for now, please be praying that the lessons that were shared there yesterday would be things that are affecting our hearts and minds towards God the next few weeks. The speaker talked a lot about the ways in which God wants to change our hearts, and it was such a good push for us in the right direction in a lot of ways. Again, I'll share more, but I really want to stress the importance of us praying for these to be things that stick with us and carry on beyond the week following.
Love you guys, and I'm so thankful for your love you show me by supporting what I'm doing here at Collin. I couldn't do this work full time without God providing such generous people like you, and I can't thank you enough.
Ryan
I think the parts of his story that reach me the most though is the way that he healed. He displays the immensity of his love for people so much to me in the details of these healings. He healed people personally. He could have walked into a town and declared the whole of the sick in the towns cured from the city gates and moved on, but our God is a relational God. He healed people in personal interactions. In the case of the woman who was bleeding for years, he could have known she had been healed and moved on, but he stopped, looked for her, and acknowledged her for her faith and her incredible audacity to approach him through a crowd of people when she was considered totally unclean during her time.
One of my absolute favorite parts of working in campus ministry is that I get to see God healing people even still. College is a very lonely place for a lot of people, and I see so often God using the students in our ministry to go meet those people, decide to pursue a real friendship with them, and over time those people's lives are flooded with meaningful relationships. That brings healing to them. I also think of people who come in with so much pride and arrogance, (much like myself) and God uses students who take time to weekly study scripture and spend time with that person. Through challenges that scripture and that relationship bring up, I see that pride eroding and being replaced with humility and a desire to put others before themselves. When you see people who learn to seek first to understand others, then to be understood, that brings healing to both us and other people.
It's not easy for us to ignore the parts of our world that have pain and suffering. Nor should we seek to ignore those things. But this month as I wrestled with focusing so much on those things, God reminded me through a few different avenues in my life that we have to balance the reality of those situations with the fact that God is still good, he's very much still working and bringing healing to people even in those situations, and that shouldn't stop us from bringing that healing that God gives to people around us, one person at a time. It may sound trite, and it's certainly the cliff notes version of what all I feel like God was showing me in this area the past few weeks, but it's been such a good reminder for me nonetheless.
I did an abysmal job of taking pictures this month for you guys, and I'm sorry about it.
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| Christian and Ryan's core went camping a couple weekends ago, and I got to go for a little bit. Only pic I took was of these rocks, and the guy up on the right sitting and enjoying the rock view along with me. Hopefully he took some better pics. |
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| Something we do every once in a while to bring new people in: FOOTBOWL. You knock over the pins with a football. Always a hit. |
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| Nicole, Louie and I have gotten to go to this creek down by our place a couple times recently to rest and relax together. It's beautiful right now especially. |
We had our Pizza Theology yesterday where we brought in a guest speaker and talked about the Sermon on the Mount. I'll talk more about it next time, but for now, please be praying that the lessons that were shared there yesterday would be things that are affecting our hearts and minds towards God the next few weeks. The speaker talked a lot about the ways in which God wants to change our hearts, and it was such a good push for us in the right direction in a lot of ways. Again, I'll share more, but I really want to stress the importance of us praying for these to be things that stick with us and carry on beyond the week following.
Love you guys, and I'm so thankful for your love you show me by supporting what I'm doing here at Collin. I couldn't do this work full time without God providing such generous people like you, and I can't thank you enough.
Ryan
This makes some sense on healing. Healing is believing, and it really takes strong beliefs to be able to heal. When you read some thoughts from Pastor Chris about healing, you will really amazed on how he promote strong religious beliefs.
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