{"id":3514,"date":"2015-03-10T15:29:15","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T15:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/?p=3514"},"modified":"2015-03-10T15:29:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T15:29:15","slug":"beyond-problem-solving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/beyond-problem-solving\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Problem Solving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jairus<\/a><\/h5>\n
July 2, 2006<\/h5>\n

Mark 5:21-43<\/h3>\n

A woman had heard that one of her favorite TV personalities was making a rare personal appearance at her neighborhood mall and she was determined to see him. But when she arrived at the mall, she realized that several hundred other people had a similar idea. There was no place to park.\u00a0 For twenty minutes she drove her car around the mall looking for a place without success. Finally, in desperation, she raised her\u00a0eyes to heaven and said: \u201cLord, help me. If you provide a parking space for me, I\u00a0promise I will put $300 in the collection next Sunday. When she turned into the next row, there, miraculously, was an empty space. She raised her eyes to heaven again and said: \u201cNever mind, I found one.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we are desperate, we turn to the Lord. But it is clear that for most of us we\u00a0would rather handle things ourselves. When we have no other options, when we have\u00a0painted ourselves into a corner, when we are at our wits end, we cry out to the Lord\u00a0to help us. But when things are running smoothly, when our finances and our\u00a0relationships are healthy and productive, we congratulate ourselves on how our\u00a0earnest efforts and wise decisions have led to our success.<\/p>\n

Now, do not misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with turning to the Lord when we\u00a0are desperate. People in crisis continually approached Jesus throughout his public\u00a0ministry. In today\u2019s gospel both Jairus, the synagogue leader, and the woman with\u00a0the hemorrhage come to Jesus because they had no place else to turn. Jesus\u00a0acts quickly and decisively to assist them. We should never feel embarrassed\u00a0or apologetic about coming to the Lord in a time of need. We should never hesitate to cry out to the Lord when we find our self in a crisis. In faith we believe that God will hear us and will act.\u00a0But what a waste it is to wait until we are in crisis. What a waste it is to wait until we are\u00a0desperate before we turn to the Lord.\u00a0 It is a waste because it is not what God wants. It is a waste because it is not what we need.<\/p>\n

Now without a doubt God is our savior, our helper, and our healer. But God\u00a0wants to be more to us than that. God has revealed God\u2019s self as father, as mother,\u00a0as lover, as friend. Why God loves us so, is a mystery, but that God loves us so, is\u00a0the gospel. So we diminish our relationship with God when we approach God simply as\u00a0a problem solver. We ignore what God wants when we approach God only as the \u201cMr. Fix-it\u201d for our lives. It is a waste for us to approach God only as the healer of our ills. God wants more! God wants to share life with us. God wants our love. Approaching God only as a savior is not what God wants.<\/p>\n

Neither is it what we need.\u00a0 How much richer our lives would be if we turned to God not only when we were desperate but every day of our lives. How much wealth and joy would we have in our lives if we turned to God not only when things were in crisis but when things were running smoothly and blessings were over flowing. If we could begin each day remembering God\u2019s love, if we could be conscious of God\u2019s presence as we face each event and each person, how much deeper, more thankful, more joyful our lives would be. That kind of living is exactly what we need. Therefore it is a waste when we only turn to God in crisis.<\/p>\n

So if you are in dire need, if you are at your wit\u2019s end, if you cannot find a parking place,\u00a0then by all means call out to God for help. To believe that God will hear and help you is central to the gospel. But do not wait until you are in crisis before you turn to God. Take God with you to every moment of every day. God is loving you now. Claim that love today. That is what God wants. That is what we need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without a doubt God is our savior, our helper, and our healer. But God wants to be more to us than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5879,"featured_media":3516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Jairus-Daughter.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}