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You Won’t Believe What I Found on the Roof

Posted Thursday, June 27th, 2013 2 Comments

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There’s so much I don’t know.

Even more that I can’t control.

A lot of days, I gasp across the entrance to home

my head throbbing

my thoughts spinning, swirling over other people’s problems

hoping for a momentary reprieve

before I face my own.

The troubles of this world are so powerful some days

and I’m not a stupid person

and I’m not afraid of hard work

and I am full of God’s love and His Spirit and His Word

but the troubles seem relentless

and people get so beaten down

and Satan has never been a student of mercy.

So lately, I’ve come home depleted,

feeling defeated

spent

overdrawn.

And every time I talk with God about it,

He brings to mind the four friends of the paralytic.

You know the story, right?

Jesus was teaching in a house crowded with people,

so crowded that four friends had to dig a hole in the roof of the house

to lower their paralyzed friend down to Jesus.

Jesus said that because of their faith,

the man’s sins were forgiven

and he was healed.

The unbelieving Pharisees got bent out of shape over the random granting of forgiveness

– you know, since they had a whole economy built around selling animals

that needed to be sacrificed for forgiveness –

it wasn’t something people could just access simply by dropping through a hole in the roof

They tried to dampen the healing party

but Jesus just kept right on forgiving and healing in front of them

while the paralyzed man

became the man-who-was-formerly-paralyzed

and his friends rejoiced.

And every time God has brought this story to my mind the past week or so,

I respond like a kid in middle school –

“boring.” I yawn.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the story. It’s nice

but what has that got to do with the very real problem I’m trying to discuss with you?

But, that’s because I’m sort of stupid sometimes.

Tonight,

when God brought the four friends to mind for the eighth or ninth time,

I humored Him.

Fine. Fine. I’ll read the story.

I’ll think about it.

I’ll try to imagine real people not some Sunday school clip art version of this dramatic, public healing.

So I did.

And I waited for some startling new answer to the very complicated ones facing me and so many people I love.

It annoyed me that we don’t know anything really, about these four friends.

It just seemed like a very straightforward story about four friends doing everything they could to get their friend to Jesus.

That’s all we know about them. That they got their friend to Jesus.

Oh.

I get it.

These four friends didn’t need to know how to treat their friend medically

or how to support him mentally

or how to counsel him spiritually

All they needed to know to do

was to get him to Jesus.

That’s a very helpful thought these day because –

I can do that.

I can get the people I love to Jesus.

I can kneel before His throne and speak their name and tell Him how much they need Him.

He’s way smarter than I am

so He doesn’t need me to suggest solutions

or ask for exactly the right thing

or figure out the source of their problem

or whether they deserve to be rescued.

I just need to get them to Jesus

and He’ll take it from there.

If this seems a little simplistic to you

ask yourself who you’d rather be

one of the know-it-all, self-righteous Pharisees clucking their tongues standing in the crowd

or one of the friends watching from the roof

as Jesus transforms their faith

into something that changes the life of their friend.

I know my answer. What’s yours?

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The Conversation

Cyn Rogalski says:

June 27, 2013 at 3:38 pm

Encouragement. That’s what I get from you, Lori.
And please know, I’ll be one of the ones lifting you & Rob, bringing you to Jesus, when you can’t. Thanks for another great post.

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Judith Robl says:

June 27, 2013 at 5:35 pm

One day, I was praying for my husband, telling God all the things He needed to do for him and how He needed to change him. And the Lord brought me up short and gave me instructions.

“Just lift him to Me and praise Me that I am Sovereign in all things. That’s all.”

So I’m to lift him to the Lord and praise the Lord for His Sovereignty, and then shut up. He didn’t say it quite so bluntly, but there it is. That last part is tricky, but I’m getting better at it.

Thank you for this great post.

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