Why do some people succeed in life, when others don’t?

In the crowd was a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. Although she had been under the care of many doctors and had spent all her money, she had not been helped at all. Actually, she had become worse. Since she had heard about Jesus, she came from behind in the crowd and touched his clothes. She said, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll get well.” Her bleeding stopped immediately. She felt cured from her illness. At that moment Jesus felt power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” His disciples said to him, “How can you ask, ‘Who touched me,’ when you see the crowd pressing you on all sides?” But he kept looking around to see the woman who had done this. The woman trembled with fear. She knew what had happened to her. So she quickly bowed in front of him and told him the whole truth. Jesus told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured from your illness.” (Mark 5:25-34, GWV)

If you like to read the really strange stories in the Bible, the Gospel of Mark is a good place to start. The central point of the Gospel of Mark is that Jesus is God, and God is different from the rest of us.This  story (which appears in slightly different forms in Matthew and Luke) is a perfect example, but at the same time, it shows who Jesus, as God, really is.

Because of the Old Testament purity laws, anyone with a discharge of any kind was not allowed into the temple. That meant that, for twelve years, this woman was unable to come into the presence of God to receive forgiveness of her sins. So in desperation, when Jesus, God present among his people, came to her neighborhood, she reached out to touch him with the hope that she would be cured.

God came to live among us to give us hope. But so many people in our own community completely lack hope. When I was growing up, I knew that I was going to college. I fully expected to live a reasonably comfortable life. I had stability, consistency, encouragement, and the full love and support of my family, not to mention knowledge of and faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In short, I grew up with hope. The same is true for most of you, and if you’re reading this, even if you didn’t grow up with that hope, you probably have it now.

But imagine living in a home where there is no hope. Poverty, abuse or neglect, or any number of other factors pile up, leaving you feeling like not only is life not fair, but the deck is specifically stacked against you. Because you don’t even know that there is such a thing as hope, you don’t even know how to reach for it. Your life is so chaotic, you can’t find employment, and even when you can, it either pays just enough to make you in ineligible for government aid, but still unable to provide for your family, or the chaos leaves you so unable to concentrate and so disorganized, you can’t even make it to work reliably, or you don’t know how to dress for a job interview, or you can’t afford the clothes to wear to the job interview.

Those of us with hope have a few choices to make. We can close our eyes and ears and pretend such a thing doesn’t exist or that the problem is so great, there’s nothing we can do. Or we can look down our noses at them, and thank God that we have our acts together, and why don’t those people just take some responsibility for themselves?

Or, since we have the greatest hope ever, the love of God in Christ, we can take that hope to those without hope. That is what God has called us to do. You see, no amount of government aid will bring hope to the hopeless. It may sustain them while they despair, but only Christ can bring hope where there is no hope to be found. Our leadership is researching the different options available to us to figure out the best method that we can use to bring hope to those without hope, And once we have the details, we will make them available to you, but be assured that it won’t be easy. But Jesus didn’t call us to go the easy path. He called us to pick up our crosses and follow him. He went to the cross to save us, and so we are called to pick up our crosses that others may be saved. It’s going to take commitment and time, but for your time investment, the return on it is eternity for someone else. You’ll never find a better interest rate. It is my hope and prayer that, when the time comes, all of you will, like Isaiah, say, “Here I am. Send me!”

Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

When things don’t seem to go our way, whether in our jobs, our family, our finances, or our church, it’s easy to get discouraged. We try to get ahead, and so often, as we try to move forward, we find ourselves on a conveyor belt pulling us back. It’s all we can do just to remain stationary, and when we manage just to keep up, we can feel pretty good about ourselves.

In his book, Direct Hit, Paul Borden says, “Being content with an impotent, declining congregation that is ignored by the community is evil.”

Those are strong words, but they’re true. Right here in North Ridgeville, 20,000 people don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, and many of those who do treat Him more like a casual acquaintance instead of the lover of our souls He really is. God has placed us here to reach out to them with His love to foster new and renewed relationships with Christ Himself and with His bride, the church.

But if we’re doing the best we can and still not moving forward, how do we change that? The answer is simple: get off the conveyor belt.

Have you ever, while driving, seen a bird in front of your car, and when trying to get away from the car, it flies straight ahead instead of going up or to the side? I just want to yell, “You’re a bird! You have wings! Go up!”

We’re the church! We have the Holy Spirit! Go up!

How do we do that? First of all, pray. Pray some more. Pray for God’s direction, for clarity of vision so we can see the path that lies before us. Pray for faith to walk down that path. No, pray for faith to run down that path. When God parted the sea for Israel to escape Egypt, it took faith to walk between those two walls of water, knowing at any moment, the wind could stop, and the walls would crash down on them. But really, that couldn’t happen. They were being held up by God, and God would never destroy His people as they walked by faith. Pray for the assurance that He will lay His path before us as well. And when He lays that path before us, pray that God give us swiftness and sureness of foot, that we move forward boldly, but all the while remain on His path, not our own.