Readings for today: Matthew 20, Mark 10:32-52, Luke 18:31-43, 19:1-27
I love the story of the blind men in Jericho who cry out to Jesus. One of them is named Bartimaeus. The other goes unnamed. Both have the same cry of desperation. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus being Jesus has compassion on them. He heals them. Gives them back their sight. They jump up, praising God, and follow Jesus. It’s a story repeated in three of the four Gospels. That’s no accident. For the Gospel writers, it illustrates how powerful desperation is in the Christian life.
I am en route to East Africa. I will arrive in country after over 27 hours in the air. Four different airports. Three countries. Hours of layovers. I still have at least ten hours to go to get to my final destination. However, I go because I want to see yet again the kind of desperation that God meets in miraculous ways. Yes, I have seen miracles of healing over here. I’ve seen the blind get back their sight. I’ve seen the sick healed of disease. I’ve even seen a little child raised from the dead. Furthermore, I’ve heard story after story from the indigenous church planters I serve of miracles and signs and wonders. But the thing that has the biggest impact on me is their hunger and thirst for God. They are desperate for more of the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives. They spend hours on their knees in prayer. They give up home and family and community to go to places to preach where the gospel has never been heard. They literally risk their lives in dangerous environments to make Christ known. As I listen to them share their stories of sacrifice, it makes my sacrifices seem small by comparison. It’s deeply convicting because I know I don’t have the same desperation.
Is this kind of desperation something we can develop on our own? Our context can make it hard. Jesus said it is hard for a rich person to get into heaven. Not impossible. But hard. Hard because it is so easy for us to fall in love with our wealth and resources. It is easy for us to settle when we have so much. It is easy for us to become complacent which causes us to lose any sense of desperation for God. The only way I know to counteract this powerful force in our lives is to push myself to the edges of my own strength and wisdom and energy and resources on a continual basis. Push myself to serve rather than be served. Push myself to give generously and sacrificially. Push myself to love radically and unconditionally. The more I engage these spiritual practices, the more I am taken beyond myself. And the more I am taken beyond myself, the more I am forced to lean on God. And the more I am forced I am to lean on God, the more I depend on Him.
Readings for tomorrow: No devotionals on Sundays