6-7-8: Coincidentally

Well. Apparently more people than I thought miss my blog postings. And I've only posted once since I've been at school - which was 7 weeks ago. So here we go.

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A few weeks ago, I was getting dinner at Chik-Fil-A before going to Lynchburg Church of God for their Fall Festival. Not going to lie, I was wanting to get in and out of the drive-through as fast as possible, and as such was not acting like a very patient person as I waited between the speakers and window. I got out my debit card and honestly was feeling agitated that it was taking so long. But when I got to the cashier she told me the driver in front of me bought my meal. I mean, talk about being convicted of my crappy attitude, that hit me hard. And then, being an analytical person, I thought about it the whole drive. That person will likely never see me again and if they do, they likely won't remember that time they covered my dinner. I don't think it's a coincidence by any means that the same week I had taught on how much small things can matter and then the next weeks, Clayton King spoke on generosity at church. ----I'm sure you may be asking, did I then buy the meal of the car behind me? well, I was shocked at what had happened (and I was trying to figure out who this person was). In my confusion, I couldn't do anything. But, I'm working on it.

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With my prayer group, we've been going through a series on being like Jesus, because what better person to model than our Savior? So, we're going into the 6th week of this study, and the one that has stuck out the most to me so far is the widow at Naim (affectionately named "the n-word" because we don't know how to say it) whose son was raised from death.

Luke 7:11-17

"11Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said,“Don’t cry.”14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said,“Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.16They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” 17This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country."

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I titled this lesson "8 words that changed history." Jesus was a busy man, arguably the busiest ever - I mean, he was only sent to save mankind and all.. All joking aside, even through His busy life, he felt compassion for people and stopped to help them. In this instance Jesus comes upon a woman whose son had died and was now being taken out of the town in a casket. He felt compassion on the woman and tried to comfort her. Then, by simply touching the casket and saying "Young man, I say to you, get up!" he brought the boy up from the dead.

These few words affected so many people. First, the boy and the mother were obviously directly changed for ever - the son was now ALIVE again. Secondly, the people around that witnessed this event and praised God for what had happened. And then, these witnesses went throughout the world and told people about what they had seen - and even now as I'm telling you about what is written it's making an impact.

Now, clearly I don't view bringing someone back to life a miniscule task under typical circumstances. But, for Jesus, speaking a few words and walking over to a casket seems to have taken little effort. So what does this mean for us? It means things that don't seem big or extravagant may have eternal significance and just might change lives and do more than we could have possibly imagined.

Whatever It Takes,

Ryan