the need to be needed

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me for not having a place for struggle in my life and the lives of those around me.  Forgive me for my tendency to jump right in and try to rescue people, instead of seeking your will and your direction for the situation.  I know that by doing that there are times when I get in the way of what you are actually trying to accomplish.  Forgive me for my need to be needed.  Help me to turn first to you this day, that I might only do what you tell me to do.  Amen.

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33

Journal: Where do you find yourself in this story?  How does it intersect with your life right now?  What is God saying to you through it?

Reflection: “Timing is everything,” or so the old saying goes anyway.  That particularly seems true in this instance.  Jesus dismisses the crowds and immediately goes up on the mountainside by himself to pray.  We can’t be sure exactly what time this took place, all we know is that it was before the evening came.  For when evening came he was already there alone, and the disciples were already on the sea being battered by the waves.  Yet it wasn’t until the fourth watch of the night that he went out to them—still struggling and fighting to stay afloat—walking on the sea.  Interesting timing to say the least.

     The disciples had probably been struggling for somewhere around twelve hours, and where was Jesus?  He was praying.  I don’t know, maybe Jesus was so enthralled in prayer that he didn’t even notice that the disciples were on the verge of being swept away.  I doubt that was the case.  Or maybe he understood the value of struggle in the process of life and growth and was just waiting for the appropriate time to rescue them.  That seems much more possible.  Or maybe Jesus didn’t do anything until he heard the Father tell him to.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this was the real reason.  After all, how many times in the Scriptures did Jesus say something like, “I only do what the Father tells me to do?”  That’s what makes Jesus so different from me, he didn’t have the need to be needed; he simply did what the Father said.  That’s why he was able to pray and be still before God even as the disciples struggled.  He trusted the Father.

     Maybe that’s why we have such a hard time allowing people to struggle.  We want to charge in and rescue them.  Maybe it is because we care so deeply for them.  Or maybe it is because we so desperately need to be need ourselves.  Henri Nouwen once said, “In order to be of service to others, we have to die to them.” In order to really be of help to people, we cannot act out of our own needs and fears, but only out of love.  We just need to trust God to be the one who comes to their rescue, in his own time, and in his own way.  And if he invites us to be a part of that, so be it.  Because if we try to do it ourselves there is a great likelihood that we might actually hinder, rather than help, what he is doing in their lives.

     So let us start where Jesus started, by kneeling before the Father in prayer and seeking his will and his direction for whatever situation might confront us, or our families, or our friends.  For he alone is truly able to rescue any of us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, may my feet be set in motion this day only in response to prayer, rather than in response to my own need to be needed.  Amen.