The Journey 78: Transformation in the life of suffering and sick

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Read:  Mark 7:24-30
Key Bible Verse: “ Show  me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God my saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.  [ Psalms 24:4-5]

Ready to Wait– In a Line: Finally Apple die hard fans could lay their hands on The I Pad 3. The I Pad 3 for the first time went on sale on Friday, March 16th, at 8 a.m. local time in the U.S. and nine other countries. There were thousand of  Apple fans who started lining outside from the previous night itself, in front of the apple stores all over the country, but what caught my attention in the news was the picture of one man waiting in the line to get his hands on I Pad 3. This man was Steve Wozniak, who was waiting in line at the Century City in California. But who is Steve Wozniak?.  Wozniak along with Steve Jobs were the co founders of Apple industry but then Wozniak  left Apple in 1987. When asked by the news reporters as to why he was waiting in the line all the  night when he could have easily bought it through other means, Steve said that although he could have easily got the I Pad  in an easier and simpler way, he preferred to rough it with the common people who are the real people.  He continued and said that he would prefer to stand all night along with these people so that he could be like them and go through their experience. At a time when all the  buying is done online, when people do not like queues nor  waiting in any way to get their things done, here is one man who stands out in the crowd, ready to show to the world what his attitude and morals are. Waiting is an impatient act for most of us, but if we need to get the desired fruits in our life, I believe the Word of God is very emphatic on the positive aspects of waiting.
                 This week we start with a new theme for our meditation. This week the theme will be “ Transforming the life of the sick and the suffering”. We live in a society and a time, when every other person is going through  sickness and suffering in one way or the other. It is the mission of the church in general and the believers in particular to see to it that we play a proactive role to alleviate suffering of others and also be a channel in God’s gift of  healing. The biblical portion that we are using for our mediation is from Mark 7:24-30. It is about the pain that a Syrophoenician goes through because her daughter was demon possessed and needed healing [ v: 25]. The Bible begins the account of this woman’s story by telling us that Jesus departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon, the area known as Phoenecia. When Jesus arrived in this area, He went into a house and did not want anyone to know of it (Mark 7:24a) It was the Syrophoenecian woman who seeks Jesus and request him to help her. It is important to note here that the woman is unknown and what is known is only about her race– woman from syrophoenicia. But when she approaches Jesus Christ, the response that our Lord makes to the woman may seem to be very strange. Her pleas and cries are  met with comments and quotes that seem to bring from our Lord word that seems to be condemning. But was the words and the attitudes that Jesus used in dealing with the woman condemning? I believe every experience that God brings in our life, there is something that He wants to teach us and mould us in a better way before our prayers are answered. Here is a wonderful lesson learnt through pain, the lesson of waiting for the Lord, waiting so that we are made more and more humble, waiting so that we truly know the price of the gift that God gives to us. An unknown author quotes “ The longer you wait for something, the more you will appreciate it, when you get it, because anything worth having is definitely worth waiting”. That is what our Lord sometimes does in our life.
Think what are the things that you have got in life after waiting for a long time– That is precious and can be divine too.
Wait…….It worth waiting.
 
Let us Pray: Lord there are times in life, when we do not understand your ways and plan in our life. At those times teach us to wait  so that we learn how to be patient and also allow You to mould us that is accordance to your will.  Amen

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