My Journey

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I am a Jesus-follower, a minister, and a mom. I'm trying to be good at a lot of things and often this exhausts me. I love my kids, my husband, my church and my life. I want to share my journey with others, so this is my blog.

Friday, February 25, 2011

The faith not to defend...

In Matthew 9 there is the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Before Jesus heals the man, He forgives his sins. The religious leaders hear this and accuse Jesus of blasphemy -claiming to have the power of God. Jesus doesn't argue with this, merely says "Which is easier, to say your sins or forgiven or to heal?", then he heals the man as well. The man and crowds who witnessed this event walk away "Glorifying God that He gave such power to humans." And the story ends there.

Here is what I find amazing. Jesus was just accused of claiming to have the power of God, to be God, yet the people don't see this. They are amazed God gave this power to a human. And Jesus doesn't correct them. He doesn't run after them yelling "By the way, I'm God, too, not just human!" I think the reason He doesn't correct the people is two-fold (or more, I just see 2 right now).

1. The main purpose of Christ coming to earth was to show the world the love of God. In forgiving a crippled man, then healing him, God's love was on display for all. And all who saw it glorified God. Therefor, Christ was happy. His mission for the day was accomplished, God was seen as worthy of love and glory, as a loving God who cares for all, even the marginalized and helpless.

2. Jesus was so secure in His standing with God that what people thought of Him, as long as they knew who God was, didn't phase him.

Both of those are such a lesson for me. To be mostly concerned that people see a loving God through me, but not feel the need to make myself look good? That is not something I'm good at. I feel the need to explain to the check-out lady if the combination of items I'm buying looks strange. If I have to cut someone off in traffic because I almost missed my exit, I'd love to pull the person I cut off over and explain that my GPS didn't give me enough warning so they don't think I'm a bad driver. It is incredible to me to think of not correcting someone's thoughts of me and only be concerned with what they think of God because of me.

God, give me that strength today.