Journey Through Lent - Day 39

Are you walking with Him? Or are you following behind? To walk with him is to be filled with all. We see that in Mark's reading. It says in verse 32, "they were on their way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, the disciples were filled with all, and the people following behind, were overwhelmed with fear."

to walk with is to be filled with awe, to follow behind, is to be overwhelmed with fear. To walk with, is to learn, is to listen, is to see things that have never been seen before, about the nature and the character of God, and the implications of that for you, and how you see yourself in this world, how you see others.  Walk with Him, and you will be filled with awe, and that changes everything. But Mark says that there were others too, they were following behind. They were not seeing things the disciples saw, their distance, following behind was creating distortion. And that distortion was creating fear. distance and distortion are where lies about God and yourself and others begin to take root. That's what distance does, it becomes the seedbed of lies.

The Gospel says that God has made up the distance. God came to give himself for us to walk with us to offer himself to us in his self giving love, he radically forgives and he suffers alongside us. To tell the truth, in he place of those lies.  That's what these disciples are seeing. As they walk with him. That's what they were so in awe of, and that's what was changing their lives. The others were following along at a distance. They were afraid. Because they were continuing along in the lie, that God is far from them. That he is angry or condemning, that God is distant. Religion has learned to use and abuse this lie of distance to coerce and control. But Jesus has come to give the awesome message of himself, of Emanuel to you, to the whole world. So let's walk with Him because He is with us. And you will be in awe, because you too will discover that there is no distance, that he is with us and we are loved..

You are loved!