Desperate Hearts - 2
"Jesus went with him, and the crowd thronged behind. And there was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors through the years and had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she was worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe. For she thought to
herself, 'If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.' Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel that she had been healed! Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?' His disciples said to him, 'All this crowd is pressing around you. How can you ask, 'Who touched me?' But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him what she had done. And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You have been healed.'" Mark 5:24-34 (NLT).
There is a world of pain and struggle that few of us ever know - - at least not until the very end of our lives. It is the struggle with chronic disease.
Do you know what it is like to wake up every day feeling drained and weak? Have you ever struggled against chronic pain that excluded you from the normal activities that others enjoy?
My 18-year old daughter knows this struggle. She has had a nine year battle with ulcerative colitis. The medications she was on depleted her bones of marrow, and she developed osteoporosis. This meant that her bones were soft. The result was that they could not support normal growth and she did not grow to her full height. Also, she could not play and participate in all the games that other children enjoyed. She could not ride her bike because it hurt her knee bones. She could not run or jump or climb like most kids do. The medicine she was on caused her to gain so much weight that other kids called her "porky." This hurt her feelings and she cried many a tear over it. Fortunately, she later lost the weight. But to this day, though God has helped her through surgeries, she still has to arise in the middle of the night, usually several times, and is chronically tired. Her struggle continues daily.
To top it all off, the medical bills have been astronomical. It has sapped our family of almost every dime we have. Were it not for God's gracious provision through an inheritance we received a few years ago, we would have no home, and would have long since gone bankrupt trying to pay doctors off.
Now God has been good to us, and we are happy. I am not sharing these things to cry the blues. I share them to give you a glimpse into the world in which some people live - - the world of chronic health problems.
Such was the world of the woman in our story, and it breeds a special kind of desperation in the human heart. No wonder she fought through the crowds to touch Jesus' clothes!
Now here, I believe, is the point of this story: the woman's faith. Jesus made it a special point to stop and find out who touched him. Why? Because he wanted to tell this woman that her faith had made her well.
This is the key to life for the desperate heart. We must have faith. We must trust God when life makes no sense or burdens are too heavy. We must believe in the love of our Lord. We must have faith that he knows about our struggle and has the power to heal or sustain us. We must trust that he is acting in our best interest, even when our struggle tells us he isn't.
The light at the end of the tunnel really isn't the train that is coming at us! God really does care. He really does see and hear what is happening to us. There really is healing for us - - if not in this life, then in the life to come.
For my daughter, she has regained bone mass, and she is beautiful! She is now 5'8" and though she is shorter than she would have been by 2-3 inches, she finds it easier to buy clothes at her shorter height! Though she still struggles with fatigue, she has a deep trust in God that few 18-year olds ever know. She has strength of character greater than her age, for she has walked with the Master through many trials. She still struggles, but her trust in God has enabled her to have a good life. Even more importantly, she has influenced many other teens to investigate or accept Christ because of her fearless witness for him.
Faith is the key. Like my daughter, Sarah, and also the woman in the story, we must trust the one who created us. We must rely on the One who called us into existence in this world. And even though we may see no point to continuing in this life, he has a point to it, and he will show us what it is day by day.
But we must trust him. Remember, this world is passing away. It is only a short blip on the screen of eternity. Trust God with all your heart. Trust him until you die. On the other side is a perfect body and all eternity in which to enjoy it.