desperation

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to realize that our desperation is a good thing, for it is what makes us reach out for you.

Scripture: Mark 5:25-34

Journal: What is your level of desperation these days?  How is that drawing you to Jesus?

Reflection: “I miss the desperation.  It drew me to Jesus in such a beautiful way,” said a dear friend who went through a difficult battle with infertility before her first child was born.  And although she was extraordinarily grateful for the birth of each of her three children, she also recognized something really beautiful about life with God: our desperation was meant to draw us to him.

The season of Lent is an invitation to transformation; a long, hard journey through our own desperation and need into a place of God’s healing and life.  Why does it have to be so long and so hard?  Because quick fixes are seldom best.  Because genuine transformation is usually the result of significant pain and struggle.  Because God is more concerned with our being holy, than he is our being comfortable. 

It is in our desperation that he shows up in a way that lets us know he is up to something so much bigger and so much deeper and so much more beautiful than we ever imagined.  It is only in our helplessness that we are able to find real help.  It is only in our powerlessness that we are able to experience real power.  And it is only in our desperation that we are able to undergo real transformation.  In fact, desperation creates some of the very best soil for God to grow his life in us.  Thus, desperation is not something to be avoided at all costs, but something to be embraced, and even nurtured.  Lent is the season where God grows our desperation and makes us ready for resurrection.

“I discovered that in the spiritual life,” writes Sue Monk Kidd, “the long way round is the saving way.  It isn’t the quick and easy religion we’re accustomed to.  It’s deep and difficult—a way that leads into the vortex of the soul where we touch God’s transformative powers.”  So come, bring your brokenness and your desperation, and he will bring his healing and his love.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Let my desperation, Lord Jesus, cause me to work my way through the crowd and reach out for the hem of your robes.  For if we can only touch you, we will be healed.  Amen.