The Rest of Your Storyنموونە

Where Do I Go for Help?

We sometimes face issues around our health, marriage, finances, relationships, work, and life in general that cause us to feel heavy. They often leave us broken, hurting, wounded, messed up, confused, doubting, hopeless, and uncertain. Where do we go with our stuff?

Church? Really, how helpful has that been? Have you, like me, ever felt like your life, story, and/or current circumstances were just a little too messy for the church? It is not uncommon.

There’s a story in Mark that sheds some light on the question of where we should go with our messes.

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:40-42)

The Bible says Jesus was indignant. But Jesus was not angry with this man. He wasn’t saying, “Don’t get that stuff near me.” Jesus got angry when people were isolated, hopeless, left out, or led to believe that they were beyond his grace, mercy, forgiveness, and healing.

Back then, if you had leprosy, you were supposed to live away from the healthy and to cry out, “Unclean!” But there was nothing in the leper’s life Jesus was unwilling to touch. There was nothing he had done or that had been done to him that made Jesus uncomfortable with him.

Unfortunately, that is often the difference between Jesus and the church. All too often the church ignores or backs away from those with deep needs or obvious flaws.

Please hear me. I think that the church can be great. When it lines up with what Jesus intended for it to be, it can be the hope of the world. But church is not the destination. It was never intended to be.

Ultimately, all of us need what this man needed: to get to Jesus.

In your prayer time today, bring to Jesus the burdens that you have been carrying on your own.