HAPPY MONDAY!
A familiar story prompts thoughts about today’s word-of-the-week…
FRIEND
In Mark 2, four friends took a paralyzed man to see Jesus. The crowd was too large and they couldn’t get close.
They might have shrugged. “Well, we tried. Too bad it didn’t work out.”
But the friends were too committed to give up so easily. They lifted the man to the roof and dug a hole so they could lower their buddy into the room where Jesus was eating dinner.
It’s easy to say you care. It’s harder to take a risk and cut a hole in a neighbor’s roof if that’s what’s needed.
I’ve been blessed by those kinds of friends, guys who got me on a handcycle when I thought it was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard. They kept after me when it would have been easy to walk away. They showed up and made sure I kept cranking on early mornings when there wasn’t anything in it for them.
Friends like that are rare. That’s probably okay; we don’t all need snow in our living rooms.
But sometimes a friend requires something remarkable or uncomfortable. It’s awfully easy to stand by, to imagine it’s not my job.
In the story, Jesus was touched by the friends’ faith. He healed the paralyzed man, spiritually and physically.
I’m grateful for the friends who stepped outside their comfort zones and did what seemed unreasonable and impossible.
It’s the story of RELENTLESS GRACE.
It’s Monday. Who needs an extradordinary friend this week?
Have a great week!
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