And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. Mark 6:5-6 (Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.)
Mark is explaining Jesus' sojourn in his own home town. People were familiar with Jesus. They knew him. They watched him grow up. Their kids played with him. Indeed, they may have played with him. (I wonder if he had an advantage at hide and seek, but that is another discussion.)
"he couldn't do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them..."
I love the fact that he could only "heal a few people..." We'd be talking about a few people healed for month's...
I believe I grew up in a community that "knew" Jesus too well. We boxed him in. We knew that he was clean cut, didn't smoke, chew, or go with girls or do; he resembled the average Utah Mormon; he voted republican, and generally agreed with a conservative political agenda. Yeah, we knew Jesus. Unlike CS Lewis' Aslan, our Jesus was safe... is safe...
I'm coming to believe that the reason we don't see the miraculous so very often is that we're too familiar... just like those that grew up with him...
I'm not sure how to get to the power that I hear missionaries speak of or I see when I travel to the third world. But somehow I want to travel toward it by faith.
My journey so far has brought me to know Jesus in ways I never dreamed possible before my fall into grace. I'm one of the lucky ones who know that if I don't stay connected to him every day I'm quite literally, "Toast". I don't know where the path is going to lead; what vistas we will get to see as we walk, but I am convinced that Shell and I are in for the kinda journey that only good LSD trips can come close to being. (or so I'm told by elders in my congregation)
The miraculous power of the Holy Spirit which empowered Jesus to do the groovy stuff he did is available to all of us. it raised me from the dead. It continues to give me the power to draw my next breath. It gives me the strength to fall to my knees and ask for help, and love Shell in ways I can't do any other way... I'm selfish though cause I still want more... I've learned enough, not to demand it though, and to patiently wait for my God to hone me to use His power to leave this world a better place than I found it.
Please, Lord, keep me from being too familiar with you... Help me to continue to trust you... I love you...
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