For the week of: Monday, February 5th 2007

"Calm in the Chaos"

If you ask me today which Bible character I would most like to have been, my answer would be…the demon-possessed man of Mark 5.  I have tremendous respect and deep admiration for him.  I am humiliated by my own cowardice compared to this man others declared a lunatic.

His moment in Scripture follows one of the most beloved Bible stories in Sunday School classrooms – the calming of the storm.  

Jesus and his apostles had set sail across the lake and, as Jesus snoozed in the boat, a “furious squall” came upon their vessel.   And these men, these seasoned fishermen, these fellas who were as familiar with the guiding of a boat thru water, as they were a meal to their mouth, panicked.  They came unglued.  Their resolve dissolved.  They were frantic with fear.

Jesus is roused from his rest, has a few words to say to his followers concerning their frail faith and then stands solidly on the bow of the boat, arms outstretched, and commands, “Peace, be still.”  And creation listened and immediately obeyed.

The next scene finds Jesus getting out of the boat in the “region of the Gerasenes” .  Scripture says that a demon-possessed man came out to meet him.  Notice how bizarre this man’s behavior was:

• He lived in the tombs
• He was naked
• He had been chained hand and foot but had torn the chains apart and broken the irons on his feet
• Day and night he cried out and cut himself with stones

The demons in him addressed Jesus, telling him their name was “Legion, because we are many.”  They were many all right.  It took 2,000 pigs to hold all of them when Jesus told them to scram.

The first question that my mind asks is why did this man, this out-of-his-mind man even dare to approach Jesus?   And I wonder…do you suppose?  Do you suppose he was stooping in the opening of a tomb, looking out at the lake when the lightening flashed during the furious squall?  Do you suppose he slowly rose from his crouched position when he spied a boat being thrown around like seaweed over the waves?  And do you suppose his jaw dropped when he witnessed a man stand up in that boat, hold his arms out over the waters and command the storm to stop…and it did?

And do you suppose his chin trembled and his eyes blurred with tears as he asked himself, “If he can bring calm to the chaos of that storm, do you suppose he could bring calm to the chaos in me?”

I choke back tears every time I consider the possibility of it.  I shake my head in amazement every time I consider the enormity of his despair. 

This naked, grave-dwelling, self-mutilating, evil-possessed man needed calm as desperately as he needed his next breath and his eyes beheld the One able to provide it.  And provide it, Jesus did.  When the townspeople who had been heralded by the keepers of the pigs showed up to see what had happened, what they saw was a man dressed, talking to Jesus, in his right mind.  And they asked Jesus to leave their region.

But not the lunatic. He “begged to go” with his Savior.  Restored people want to be near Jesus.

Oh, how we need to be restored.  I know people whose names I could list right now who feel naked because they cannot fathom that a God would want them to wear His robes of righteousness.  Not after what they’ve done, who they’ve hurt, how they’ve rejected Truth.

I know precious, precious men and women who are living in self-imposed tombs because they are so afraid of failing that they have stopped trying and they have become recluses in a world that desperately needs them.

I talk to people every week that are bound mind, body, heart and soul by addictions, bitterness, gluttony, resentment, laziness, selfishness, lust, greed and a whole host of other demons.

Their cries are silenced by their own hands clamped over their mouths because they think no on else is “this bad, this despairing, this worthless.”

Dear one, hear this.   If this is you, if there is even a small part of this that sounds like it resembles you, the inhabitant of hell itself is lying to you.   I grieve more about people who see themselves defeated than I do about people who lose a child to death or a spouse to cancer or their finances to bankruptcy.  Believing loved ones, though dead, are in the presence of the glory of God.  Children of the Almighty God who accept defeat as their fate are giving earth’s vile creature a reason to prance before the face of Father with glee.  And the gifts of love, joy and peace that Father joyfully longs to bestow upon His precious children are being forsaken, unopened, unused.

Beloved, your failures and my failures do not describe who we are.  Those words may describe how we handled a situation, maybe a lot of situations, but God says if we are His, we are conquerors.  You don’t have conquerors unless there’s a victory and there’s always a victory when the enemy is measured against the power of Almighty God.  Measured against our own power, those foes look pretty intimidating.  But hold ‘em up against the power of the God of Creation and see how big and mighty they look!   Goodness, dear one.  If you are His child, you have the same power that resurrected Christ from the grave at your disposal.  Think of that!  God says He wants to give to you from His very own storehouse of strength whatever you need. 

Line them up…all of the failures, the fears, the addictions, the pain, the heartaches, the aggravations, the disease, the faithless living, the lusts of life…look at them in the shadow of Him. Measure them against His all-consuming power and Be Restored.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you mat be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Lovingly,