Choosing Abundance

Buried in the story of Jesus healing Jairus' daughter is a sweet story of the healing of a woman subject to bleeding (Matt 9:18-26, Mark 5:24-34, Luke 8:42-48).  I have ALWAYS loved this story and have never been 100 percent sure why.  Maybe it is because of the audacity of the woman; maybe it is her timidity; maybe it is simply knowing that Jesus cares about the disgusting things, the things that embarrass me. Regardless, I'm thankful that Jesus cared enough about this woman to heal her.

Let me set up how I see the story: Jesus is on his way to ultimately raise a girl from death to life.  While walking the crowd is pressed tight around him.  I see them walking and making it hard for him to move.  And there is this woman.  Honestly she shouldn't be in this crowd at all.  Women who were bleeding were required to call out 'unclean' when coming into contact with others.  She was violating multiple rules laid out in Leviticus.  She was DESPERATE.  She was embarrassed.  She probably hadn't often been lovingly touched because to touch her meant that one became unclean and could not fellowship, couldn't enter the synagogue or temple.  People were inevitably pressing around her as she was reaching for the Master.  She was jeopardizing the ability of others to freely worship God.  And all this for a chance at the freedom she believed Jesus offered.

She wasn't looking for recognition.  She only wanted enough of Jesus to rid her of the ugliness, of the disease, only enough to make her clean.  And she was right!  Simply touching him made her clean.  Think about it, simply touching Jesus is cleansing, redeeming, freeing!

I've always seen this story as a tale of a woman with extraordinary faith.  She knew that just touching Jesus would supply her need.  But as I read this story this week, I saw something drastically more.  She wasn't looking for abundance.  She was only looking for enough. And then I began to wonder...

Is this what I do?  Is this what the church in America does?  Is this why people are rarely dramatically healed?  Is this why we haven't had a sweeping revival in decades?  I think, I believe, that it is.  Instead of falling on our faces before Jesus, instead of pleading for his redemption; instead of exposing our sickness, our unclean desires before HIM, we try to just touch his robe.  We seek enough to be saved, but not enough to be truly changed.  We seek enough to be healed, but not enough to live abundantly.  We seek to be relieved of the disease of sin but we DON'T want the sin exposed.

In the end this woman was exposed.  She was called out.  The affliction she tried so desperately to hide was made known.  Not revealed just to her contemporaries but to you and me, to every generation since the writing of the Gospels.  I have been thinking on how different her story would be if she had fallen on her face before Jesus.  She received the healing she desperately longed for but I think there was more available to her.  If there was more available to her is there more available for me, for us?

I want to stop living in the 'just enough' and start living in the abundance Jesus offers.  It will mean some changes for me.  It will mean earnestly and openly seeking His face.  It will mean believing that I am worth more than just the edge of his robe.  It will mean exposure.  It may mean embarrassment.  But it will be worth it!  Because I will go away truly changed!  I will be free to be exactly who God created me to be.

 I will no longer settle for less than I am worth.  I was worth the CROSS.  You, my friends, were worth the CROSS.  God sent Jesus to die for me, to die for you.  He wants us to have the abundance.  He freely offers the best!  Will you join me in ceasing to settle for the hem of his garment?  Will you go forward in abundance?  Can we say to the world together,  "We are broken and in need of a SAVIOR?  We are sick in need of a HEALER? We were condemned and in need of a REDEEMER? We were lost and in need of a HERO?  We were embarrassed and in need of a FRIEND?  Jesus has been our SAVIOR, HEALER, REDEEMER, HERO and FRIEND!'

This is what our world needs to hear.  That we believe that each person is worthy of the abundance Jesus offers.  The only way to tell others is to show them.  And the only way to show them is to begin living in the proffered abundance of Jesus presence!

Dear Miley,

You have never met me.  And honestly, you probably never will.  Several years ago I watched you on Disney Channel with my little girl.  We loved Hannah Montana.  We watched it as a family.  We loved to see you on tv.  We loved what you stood for in life.  I liked knowing that you were working with your dad.  At the time it appeared you would survive childhood stardom unscathed.  

Sadly, I was wrong.  Apparently you didn't survive and thrive.  You gave in to the inordinate amount of pressure that the spotlight brings.  As I see it, you have fallen to nearly the bottom.  Maybe you are about to hit rock bottom.  I don't know.  But there are some things I do know.

Miley, I'm sorry that when you were that 'good girl'  I didn't pray for you.  It didn't matter that you were a good influence with seemingly good parents.  What mattered was that because you were a good role model you were going to be under more attack, under more pressure than the others in the spotlight.  I'm sorry that it took the decisions you are making now to send me a wake up call.  I'm sorry that when you look in the mirror you don't see someone who is abundantly loved by JESUS!  I'm sorry you don't see your beauty.

If your goal was to gain attention, you have accomplished that.  If your goal was to gain respect...as a whole, you have lost that from most of the people I know.  But I also believe you can change.  You can become a good role model again.  You can show people the saving grace and mercy of Jesus.  I believe you don't want to go back to being Hannah Montana.  I can understand that.  I'm thankful I don't have to be the person I was in my teens.  But you can go back to being a good role model for women everywhere.  You could revolutionize pop culture like you revolutionized Disney Channel sitcoms.

So here is my promise, I promise to pray for you.  I don''t even believe you will ever see this.  But I still promise.  I will pray for your parents.  I will pray that God sends people into your life that show you the way to Jesus.  I will pray you become a good role model again.  I will ask others to pray for you too.  Because even though I don't know you my heart aches for you.  I know you must be hurting about something to act the way you have been.  So I will simply pray.

Kristen

(Side note to my friends who are moms:  I know this may seem out there but honestly Miley could be any one of our adult children.  We would want everyone who interacted with them to pray for them.  To be Jesus to them.  I have never prayed for a celebrity before this but I am truly praying.  Please pray with me.  This girl who was given her name because she lights up a room when she smiles could dynamically change the world for Jesus.  Or she could continue down this path and draw others with her to Satan.)