Who's Your Favorite Teacher?

S - Luke 8:49-56 (NLT): "… a messenger arrived from Jairus's home with the message, "Your little girl is dead. There's no use troubling the Teacher now."  But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Just trust me, and she will be all right." When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn't let anyone go in with him except Peter, James, John, and the little girl's father and mother. The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, "Stop the weeping! She isn't dead; she is only asleep." But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died. Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, "Get up, my child!" And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up! Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened."

O - Is experience really the best teacher?  All through this chapter the teaching of experience is heralded in surround sound intensity affirming its inevitable conclusions.  In the face of such stark and devastating reality, experience's teaching voice:
             1.       Booms 'there's no use troubling the Teacher now.'

             2.       Mocks with laughter because 'they all knew she had died.'

The voice of Jesus, the real best teacher, is presenting quite a different message and conclusion.  Jesus says:
             1.       Don't be afraid, merely believe.
             2.       Stop the weeping; to me she's only asleep.
Interestingly enough all agreed on the situation.  The request for healing was no longer valid; greater and irrevocable forces had overcome the very basis of the request for Jesus' involvement.  Thousands of years of experience combined with the collective empirical data of the crowd exert their instructions in such a circumstance - stand down the request, bow down to the grief, accept your fate and do not trouble about it.  From eternity past to eternity future to the fulcrum of this tragic yet tender moment Jesus calls Jairus to trust, to the fierce personal loyalty Jesus deserves and offers and says Don't be afraid, merely believe; and to the crowd he says stop weeping.  In the end both do what Jesus said; the Dad unto the joy of real life and the crowd stops their weeping in the rebuke of it.

A - Real life is near me and so is the voice of experience.  I know that Jesus is the best and only real teacher and the surround sound of this world (church included and often leading the chant) is blaring at me.  As this whole transition began under the press of ruthless and faithless forces, I have been called to the words of Jesus to Jairus.  I don't know how all this will turn out but I do know that Jesus deserves my trust and that Jan and I have agreed to run hard to the end.  So, I'll keep following Jesus as we walk to the house where the daughter lies and the people weep and mock and I will listen for his voice and see what he will do.  My assignment is to not be afraid and to merely believe.  With King David I say - the time I am afraid I will trust in him.

P - Lord who speaks, teaches, heals and has authority over all and the capacity to do anything …

I invoke your name, your will, your presence, your person and I turn to you my face, my ears, my will and say YES! I welcome you and your awesome brilliance, limitless power, extreme goodness, defiant mercy, and relentless love.  Lord, please go wake up the funding and the release for which we all have prayed, believed and worked.  I will do the work you assign me and that work is believing and then doing with you what you are doing.  Lord, I believe you are doing this.  I am asking yet again for new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and for that which is too wonderful for me. Thank you for real life … refreshing, vibrant, irrepressible.

Unto the only best teacher and real life,
Steve