A Deep Current

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

- 1 John 4:13, 14

Today in our Children's Class we acted out the Bible story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I invited a couple of boys to be the disciples, a Samaritan woman we draped with a shawl, and another girl to play the role of Jesus, much to her delight. 

In that age, Jews did not associate with Samaritans, let alone a "godless" Samaritan woman, and so I encouraged the boys to frown and growl at her, arms crossed with as menacing an expression as they could muster. But the Samaritan heard a different voice when Jesus spoke into her life, attending to outcasts, Jesus loved the marginalized Samaritan woman, sat down with her in her space, listening and engaging her in conversation on her terms...well, actually Jesus happened to be circling the room right then, while the Samaritan woman sat disengaged at our makeshift well, a blue blanket and a water jug with a ladle.

As I narrated the story, the Samaritan woman bent down with her ladle, burdened by a past which haunted her, and scooped out some imaginary water out of the water jug, lifting the ladle to Jesus. We all motioned for Jesus to come, and when she was finally convinced of the relevance of the gesture, she walked up to the Samaritan woman, took the ladle with laughter and drank deeply of life, out of the deep well of emotion.

I narrated the words of Jesus, with Jesus still circling the room aimlessly and the Samaritan women still smiling in the moment, sitting quietly at the well, "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again." One of the disciples looked at me in astonishment, "whoa...living water!"  

Still narrating, I prompted the Samaritan woman for her dramatic exit, "And the woman ran and told everyone she knew about Jesus and His kindness to her." She looked up at me, still sitting, still smiling. I knew there was no reason to run. We paused, let the love of Jesus sink into our hearts, and then shouted the only word that came to mind at that moment, "hooray!" Hooray for eternal life, hooray for forgiveness, hooray for grace extended and received today - as simple as receiving a gift and giving thanks in return. 

Maybe we were all sitting at the well right then, soaking in the refreshment of the Spirit who gives life - the replenishing life of God. We all sang at the top of our lungs while the river of life rushed on, "I've got peace like a river...I've got joy like a fountain...I've got love like an ocean in my soul."

Messenger of God

The Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: "I am with you," declares the Lord.

- Haggai 1:13 

This morning I popped in on one of our Special Needs Ministry adult classes at church. One of the ladies excitedly informed me that she had a note she had written for my wife and I, promising to give it to us later. I thanked her sincerely, but with the rush of the day her promised note had slipped my mind.

Later in the day, Chieko, my wife, opened up the folded paper she received and laid it out before us. A simple message was neatly printed on two lines of a long sheet of paper, "God Love U You" and underneath was plainly written, "Frank" (our last name). 

"It's such a simple message", Chieko said, "but we forget the most important things so easily." I thanked God for His messenger today bearing Good News, putting first things first, communicating in her own simple way: I'm so happy you're here - happy to be with you - and don't forget God is too.    

Heart of Prayer

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

- James 5:16

I've (clumsily) stepped into the role of Lead Pastor of our Special Needs Ministry at our church, and as exhilarating as a new position and an unexpected turn in the journey can be, I am also, admittedly, overwhelmed. A dark cloud of doubt had filled my mind this weekend and I found myself debating with God in the prophetic tradition of Moses, Ezekiel and Jeremiah: Lord are you sure you've called the right man for the job? There must be some kind of mistake here.

This morning I met up with a group of men with developmental disabilities at the entrance of our church sanctuary. We briefly caught up with each other, breathing in shared laughter and the joy of being together, and then walked into the sanctuary as the worship service had already begun, all ten of us smiling to ourselves with one of those so-wrong-that-it's-funny-moments, and sat down about as indiscreetly as ten men waving and shaking hands with strangers can be. 

I settled down into familiar comfort and conventionality and found myself going through the liturgical motions of worship: stand up, sit down, sing, listen - all properly staged and managed - but I found my doubting heart far removed from the heart of God. 

The man sitting beside me fumbled through the chair pocket in front of him until he found what he was looking for: a "communication card" to welcome newcomers to our church. He carefully wrote down his name, then wrote down "Mom" and scribbled "Mom" one more time to emphasize the point. He looked over at me, leaning in front of me until he was sure that he had caught my attention, pointing vigorously and smiling widely - I nodded in turn to his satisfaction. He began pointing at me next. I looked at him foggily, and then finally caught on that he was asking for my name on paper. I took the sheet and wrote my name under "Mom". 

With another big smile he took the sheet from me again and copied my name, slowly, painstakingly, letter by letter, "D-A-L-L-A-S". When he was finished, his eyes lit up with an ever-brightening smile, and pointed even more assuredly to my name. I smiled back again, but somehow I felt compelled to take a closer look at the sheet, perhaps it was the inner prompting of the Spirit or maybe just his eyes that happily refused to let go of mine, I can't be sure now. 

I assumed he was merely scribbling names, but this was a much more meaningful exercise than writing practice. I realized then that he had written my name under the category "Prayer Requests". He was communicating something God wanted me to hear that day: I'm in his prayers. This time tears filled my eyes as we smiled together.  "Thank you brother", I thought to myself", "I need your prayers now." He stuffed the "communication card" into his pocket, smiling again with quiet, inner confidence in God - almost knowingly of the prayer breakthrough I had just received. 

God answered my doubt, as He always seems to do, in the least likely and most unexpected places. Am I inadequate for this job? Of course. But the question is also irrelevant. All my inadequacies faded into irrelevance under my friend's prayer coverage, as "(God) stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in" (Isaiah 40:22b).