September 5, 2024 - The Leper?

     I am on a roll, depending on how you look at it.  Four blogs in a week after none for four months.
     If it’s a good roll, it could be like Reed Sheppard who hit 7 of 10 three pointers against Tennessee last spring.  I never could understand why that kid didn’t start for the Cats.
     Or it could be a bad roll, like the huge log from the oak tree that we had taken down a couple of years ago.  I was cutting it up into more manageable sections, thinking that I had chocked it enough to keep it from rolling down the hill.  I hadn’t and the 42” diameter log started rolling down the hill.  All I could do was watch and hope that it didn’t make it to our neighbor’s dock.  It didn’t, but it made the lake.  It may be there until my grandkids are my age.
     I guess that you can decide if it’s a “Reed” roll or a “log” roll.  How far you choose to read answers that.  This was one that I couldn’t let slide.
     My faith was put into the crucible this morning.  It had nothing to do with doubt; it had everything to do with a choice I had to make.   That’s usually the crucible for us.  What will I choose to do in a given situation?
     We purchase from a vendor and this vendor purchases from us.  Like another vendor that I shared about last spring, this vendor and everyone who works for them are from India.  They are far more committed to their Hindu faith than lots of Christians that I know.  Many of them have the “dot” on their forehead—most all the time I see them.
     There’s a man who works there who is a member of the family who owns business.  It took me awhile to realize that he was one of the “chiefs” because he has a tendency to stay in the background.  There’s a good reason why.
     This man has some type of skin disorder.  I honestly don’t know if it was a genetic cause or whether it was something that he contracted.   A few weeks back Dr. Taylor shared about a young boy in Liberia with a skin disorder.  She likened his skin to being rough like cauliflower.  Using that illustration, he looks like cauliflower on steroids.
     I have encountered him maybe 7-8 times and I have felt sorry for him.  It would be a terrible condition to endure.  You couldn’t go anywhere without feeling like people were looking at you.
     When I entered their warehouse this morning I greeted the guy who is usually in charge and I shook his hand.  The man with the skin condition was walking toward the counter.  I have no doubt that he saw me shake the hand of the other man.
     As he neared me I had a decision to make.  What would you have done?  I have assumed that the condition isn’t communicable, but I have no way of knowing that.
     When he got within a few feet I greeted him and then I stuck out my hand to shake his hand.  It was a poignant moment.  It seemed like it was longer than it was, but there was a pause on his part.  It was like he looked at me and was silently asking, “Are you sure you want to shake my hand?”
     Finally he reached out his hand and we shook hands.  But I sensed that there was something deeper.  I have no knowledge of how long it had been since someone out of his normal circle had treated him with grace and love.
     The people in this business know who I am.  I was even wearing a blue “Daybreak” t-shirt this morning.  How I treated this man spoke volumes.
     Don’t get the wrong idea here.   I don’t write this for anyone to think that I am a such a good Christian.  I’d be a fool to write these blogs if that was the case.
     I was put into a situation where I had a choice to do as I believe Jesus would have done in the same situation.  We face circumstances lots of days that call us to put our faith into action.
     The Gospels tell about a leper who came to Jesus.  Mark’s account puts it this way:
 
1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
 
     Jesus touched the leper as a part of this miracle. 
 
     As I have pondered this circumstance most of the day, I initially thought, “I feel like I was like Jesus today.”   Upon much reflection I came to think more on the lines of “I did what Jesus would have done.”
     One difference was in how I initially felt about it, that Jesus would not have felt.  There was some concern as you might expect.  But something deeper.
 
     Mark says that Jesus was moved with compassion.  Then He touched the man, and lastly healed him.
 
     The word for compassion is a strong word.  The NIV says that Jesus “had pity” on him.   I don’t think that is strong enough.  It literally means “to be moved as to one's bowels.”  It is something that you feel in your gut.
 
     It’s a word that is used almost exclusively about Jesus in the New Testament.
 
     What happened in my heart as I thought about this man was that the pity that I have had for him since I met him some months ago, began to be something deeper.  I am not sure that I have become like Jesus enough to say that I have compassion for someone.  I can at least say that it is something that I feel for this man in my gut or in my heart.
 
     “What would Jesus do?” is one thing.  Asking, “What Jesus would feel?” is another.  Somehow by the transforming power and grace of Jesus, maybe there is hope for me.
 
Lord, I want to do what You would do in circumstances that You allow and may even initiate.  Lord, take me deeper.  Help me to grow enough into Your character that I may even begin to feel what You would feel for someone else.