Listen Beneath

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Matthew 9 (click the link)


KEY PASSAGE:
Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2, NIV)


THE BIG IDEA:
Jesus is busy!  Today He forgave the sins of a paralytic, then after criticism, healed his paralysis.  He brought a dead girl back to life, healed a woman with a chronic bleeding disease, restored sight to blind men, cast out a demon and answered to criticism about fasting.  Makes me tired to read what He did in one day!


REFLECTIONS:
As I read this passage, what struck me was how Jesus didn’t always do the predictable.  Instead of healing the man with paralysis, He forgave his sins.  Only after criticism did He heal the paralysis.  Later, two blind men follow Him asking for mercy.  He doesn’t heal their blindness until later—after asking about their faith.  Even when the lady is healed from bleeding—He addresses her faith.  He listened beneath… He saw past, what we call in the medical field, their Chief Complaint.  Sometimes He touched and healed physically, other times He engaged their spiritual side.

These stories make me reflect on WWID? (What Would I Do?).  When I am faced with someone with a heavy burden—physical, financial, a wound, a struggle… WWID?  I want life to be OK for me and for the people I love so I tend to jump in and try to fix it—go to problem solving mode.  Find them some better help… someone that knows better than I how to help or I run away—either keep the conversation shallow or say “I’ll pray for you.”  Not that prayer isn’t an answer but for me, it can be an escape, something to say because I don’t know what else to say. Or… maybe I’m terrified to be real or to be left not knowing what to say or how to help.

I am reading a book by Larry Crabb, Soul Talk, that is challenging me big time to “listen beneath.”  Soul Talk involves listening FIRST—what is beneath the struggle?  If the Spirit is inside us, maybe I should LISTEN first.  I am a slow learner but I’m trying to pause long enough to ask questions of the person who struggles but also of the Spirit inside of me. What is God doing in this struggler’s life?  Where might He be trying to bring her or him? Maybe there is more going on, something more important than a broken marriage or strained finances.  What’s going on the spiritual level? James 1:19 gives us a reminder to “be quick to listen, slow to speak.”


PRAYER:
Father, my desire, my heart craves for You first.  To know You and to make You known.  Forgive me when I put other things above that.  Teach me to listen to your people and allow You to touch their soul through me.


WHO AM I?
Hi!  I’m Cinda Brooks… Stanley and I are currently “on the road.”  We miss our friends hugely but are having a ball traveling through Arkansas right now.  As we move into a new state we love to sample local wines.  We have a bad habit of Peanut M&M’s and red wine.  Texas has Arkansas beat in wine making!