Vol. 17 No. 10 | March 9, 2015
Do We Really Not Know?
We have been going to church all our lives. We have listened to hundreds, maybe thousands of sermons. We have attended conferences, workshops, seminars, and small group studies all designed to help us share our story of faith with other people. We have accumulated all that information and still we act like we do not know what they need.
We have resources at our fingertips that can help us understand our neighbors and give us insight into what life is like outside of the walls of our church buildings. We read books on understanding our times and we pride ourselves in knowing our communities and yet we still act like we do not know what the people in our communities need.
We read our Bibles and pray our prayers and sing our songs and offer to help by saying, “If there is anything we can do for you please let us know.” We have our times of fellowship, we pat one another on the back, we shake hands and ask, “How are you doing?” and sometimes they tell us. We know people are hurting and we know they are in need and yet we act like we do not know what they need.
Obviously these scenarios are not always true. Not all churches and not all Christians act like we do not know what people need, but many do. Do we really not know?
Do we really not know that marriages that are in trouble need help learning better and more effective ways to communicate and become better at managing their money, or us solid Biblical teaching about being married?
Do we really not know that parents who are having trouble with their teenage son or daughter need help understanding what life is like for a teenager, need help knowing how to communicate with their teen, and learning what it means to be a parent?
Do we really not know that the family of a fifteen year old boy who was shot in his own driveway needs help dealing with the shock, anger, and pure sadness that comes with such a loss?
Do we really not know that the family of the eleven year old boy responsible for the shooting need help as they deal with the confusion, the guilt, and the loss of their son being taken from them?
Do we really not know that the woman who lost her husband after fifty years of marriage needs help to move through the grieving progress?
Do we really not know that a teen age girl dealing with all the pressures of being a teenage girl needs a mother, or a grand mother, or another godly woman to invite her into life where a relationship of trust and understanding can grow?
Do we really not know? As followers of Jesus, after reading of His life, after knowing how He lived and loved and served and touched people, do we really not know? Maybe if we remember what He came to do it might help us remember.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-23, NIV).
Do we really not know?
Tom
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2015. Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.