Jesus and a distraught dad

Friday morning madness

Have I mentioned before how much I love Friday mornings? From getting to give kids high fives as they arrive, to hearing about what is going in their lives, to seeing the latest new kyndama trick, I truly enjoy getting to be a part of WyldLife and kids' lives.

Fun times with TP

Over and Under

Matthew Patrella planned the game today. It was a super fun game that involved toilet paper. What kid doesn't like playing with TP?!? Everyone had to get into teams, and then line up and pass a roll of TP under one person's legs and then over the next person's head. The first team to unravel their whole roll without breaking it won.

The 6th grade boys beat everyone by a mile

The 6th grade boys were victorious… but there is speculation that their roll may have been a bit shorter than some of the others.

The girls.

After we cleaned up all the TP I got to finish the story that I started last week about Jesus, a desperate dad, and a bleeding woman.

The story is found in Mark 5: 21-43

Last week I talked about how Jarius, a very important town official had come up to Jesus, fallen at his feet, and begged that Jesus come with him and heal his daughter because his daughter was dying. There was sense of urgency, and Jesus, Jarius and a big crowd started making their way through the town to Jarius' house.

In the middle of all the commotion, a woman came and interrupted everything. She had been bleeding for 12 years, and was instantly healed by touching Jesus' robe. Jesus stopped everything to get to know this woman better, and stayed to hear her whole story.

I'm sure, to Jarius, it felt like Jesus forgot what they were doing, and that they needed to hurry. As Jesus was talking to this woman, some people came from Jarius' house with the following message, "Your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the Teacher now."

You can sense the frustration and anger as well as the defeat in their voice. There's no point bothering this guy anymore, he took too long and your daughter is dead. I can't imagine what Jarius must have felt at that moment. Anger. Frustration. Despair… What if Jesus didn't stop for this street lady? What if we had gotten their sooner? Didn't Jesus know who Jarius was?!?

Jesus, I imagine with love and compassion beyond description, looked at Jarius and said, "Don't be afraid. Just have faith."

To this dad who was just informed his 12 year old daughter died. To this dad who wasn't even there with his daughter as she took her last breath. To this dad that had put all his hope in this "teacher" that could perform miracles but took too long to get to his house. Jesus said, "Don't be afraid. Just have faith."

Having the kind of faith that can cut through the fear felt in this moment is different than intellectually believing in something. While it might be easy to say that we believe in something, it sometime gets a lot harder once it comes time to actually trust in it.

To help make this point I asked some of the kids that came to summer camp last year to remember the "leap of faith." The leap of faith is a giant telephone pole with a platform several stories above the ground. Kids climb up the pole, stand on the platform, and then try to jump and grab onto a trapeze several feet away.

This takes not only faith, but actual trust. Kids have to trust that the ropes are going to hold them, and that once they jump and then let go of the trapeze they aren't going to just fall to their death.

Jesus is telling Jarius to have this same kind of faith that produces actual trust. Jesus is asking Jarius to trust that he can still do something good.

They continue the journey to Jarius' house, but Jesus tells everyone except for Jarius and his closest friends to go away. When they reach the house, there are already people gathered crying and mourning with the family. Jesus enters the house with Jarius, is joined by the girl's mother, and together, with his three closest disciples, they go into the girl's room.

It must have felt so empty and dark. A room with a 12 year old dead girl. A daughter, a little girl, lying dead on a bed.

Jesus walks up to the girl, grabs her hand, and then says, "Little girl, get up!"

Immediately the girl got up and started walking around! Death turned into life! Fear removed by faith!

Sometimes it can be so hard to have any kind of faith that God, that Jesus, can do something good. There are times, like this with Jarius, when it seems silly to have any sort of faith that God can do something good.

I have had times in my life when I doubted God, when it felt like there was no way anything good could happen. There still are times like this if I am honest. But every single time, God has made such good things happen that are so far beyond my imagination.

To some of you guys it might seem like having faith in Jesus is little more than some sort of sentimental belief, much like an adult version of believing in Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. To some of you it might be easy to believe in God, but not as easy to trust him, and have faith that he still gets involved in our lives today, that he actually cares about us. Still some of you may be at a time in your life where you are like Jarius. Maybe you are frustrated with God, maybe you had faith before, but felt like God let you down, and you just can't trust him anymore. Maybe something is happening in your life that you can't imagine God can bring anything good out of.

To you, Jesus says, "Don't be afraid. Just have faith." He doesn't condemn you for questioning him or even for getting angry or frustrated, he just asks that you trust him. He can do good, in every situation, in every instance, in every bad thing, Jesus can do really good stuff, and he is very trustworthy.

So, if you want to talk with your middle schooler about WyldLife today, ask them what we did with toilet paper. Ask them to tell you about the thing at camp called the "leap of faith." Ask them what Jesus did to a dead girl their age, and then ask them why we can actually have faith in Jesus.

Small group time. So Good.