Whatever it takes

Mark 2 includes the amazing story of a paralyzed man who is taken by four of his friends to a home where Jesus was preaching, only to be lowered into a packed-out house through a hole that was dug in the roof.

At the end of the story, after he was healed, the whole crowd was amazed, and they glorified God by saying “we’ve never seen anything like this before”.

I know they were talking about the miraculous action of Jesus, but as part of the amazement, I would’t be surprised if some of them included the behavior of the guy’s friends. I doubt anyone had ever been in a house and felt pieces of the roof falling in on them, only to step aside and see someone get lowered through the ceiling! What was true of the thing Jesus did was true of the whole incident: “We’ve never seen anything like this before”.

The same thing can happen today; when Jesus is in the house, people should be astonished at His power and amazed by our creativity and faith. I really believe Jesus is ready to do His part, and He’s waiting for us to do something out of the box like dig a hole through the roof cam live sex because we care so much about our broken friends. In a “win at all costs” culture, we are often content to simply sit in the house listening to Jesus, and not take radical action to get others to him. Perhaps here are some reasons why:

We don’t really believe that if we take this kind of wild action that Jesus will come through for us!

We are afraid that if we go that far “off the reservation” that others will judge or ostracize us!

We don’t really care so much about those who are broken around us that we are willing to do whatever it takes to bring them to Jesus!

I have a passion to pastor a church full of people who are eager to do whatever it takes to bring their lost friends, co-workers, family members and neighbors to Jesus. Let’s stop limiting our thinking to the “possible“, and creatively do whatever it takes to help our culture encounter the living Christ. I want to hang out with people who don’t care what others think, but are so focused on the lost and have so much faith in Christ that disturbing a gathering and getting some roof debris on folks doesn’t even cause a second thought!