By: Elizabeth Haarberg

Anchoring

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

I have conversations with Christians about how if they didn’t have Jesus in their life, they wouldn’t know what to do, and we wonder what people do in crisis when they don’t have Jesus. I can tell them what people do without Jesus because I was one of them.

I was smart enough, had enough money, and was clever enough to make it in life with no dependence on Jesus…until I wasn’t. Marriage, children, and death all highlighted the chasm that I couldn’t see when life was moving along well.

Brokenness creates a desperation that the world can not fix or fill. When we come to the end of our own abilities or strengths, the opportunity to venture into the deep water is present.

One of my favorite verses and stories in the Bible is about the gentile woman who is asking for help from Jesus.

“But she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’”
Mark 7:28 English Standard Version

I have pictured myself as that woman who is so hungry that she would eat the crumbs that Jesus offers. In her desperation, she is willing to take whatever she can get from the Creator of the Universe.

People who don’t know Jesus are people who don’t know him…yet. We are all works in progress, traversing life. At any given moment, the wide gap of our own abilities and God giving us opportunities to reach out to Him for living water are just one tiny situation away from our finally accepting not being able to handle or control things on our own anymore.

What’s our part in other’s stories? To love them.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35 ESV

Love like Jesus loves us. God does not suggest but commands us to do so.

My prayer is when we come into contact with someone who does not know Jesus, love them like God loves everyone. This is how they get to know God.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado