Day 31: Slow down, you move too fast
Depending on your age, a Simon & Garfunkel tune may be playing in your head. We live in a fast-moving world. For you to move fast, what does it take? What I mean is, “For you to move fast, do you simply start out that way, or is there a process to gain speed?” For me, I can move fast, once I really learn something.
I remember my first “Reactor Scram” drill. It was stunning. I was a student – an observer. In a matter of seconds, with choreography the likes of the New York City Ballet, a highly-tuned team of people took a nuclear reactor from full power to shut-down.
What was even more intimidating, was that in a matter of months (weeks, really), I was expected to learn how to move that fast. And it happened – I did learn it. But it happened when they slowed me down. They did not care that I had a Bachelor’s degree. They broke down my learning into the basic elements, made sure I knew them, and then we “stepped on the gas”.
We need to slow down through this part of John’s Gospel. Jesus is trying to get the disciples, and us, to see our connection with God and God’s world.
John’s Gospel is about us meeting, believing in, and following, Jesus. Many of us struggle with the person of Jesus and the idea of God, because we move too fast.
We move too fast as we read Jesus saying:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Can I tell you how conscious I am right now of the challenge to come across in a way which leaves you believing in Jesus and the Bible? This is one of those sections where preachers and teachers, in an effort to explain, do such crazy mental gymnastics that they look like a twisted-up Gumby – and people walk away thinking they cannot trust the Bible.
Why am I so conscious of not becoming a twisted-up Gumby?
We all struggle with the way things in our lives, and in our world, turn out.
We read verses that say we, if we believe and ask, we will do greater works then Jesus.
We have all prayed to God to heal a sick child or friend, and there was no healing. We have all asked God to turn around some horrendous situation, and our requested outcome never appears.
We have all at times been disappointed with God.
So how do we handle the intersection of our disappointment with these three verses?
I want to simply suggest we slow down.
Yesterday I pointed out that Jesus is inviting us to his home, indeed, to our home. Seeing where our true home is Step One of seeing reality.
For Jesus, reality is “seeing our connection with God and God’s world”. He has for the last three years been inviting his disciples to see this reality. They are struggling. We are, too.
I want to tackle this over the next three days by looking at three words/phrases:
Ask in His Name
Greater Things
Believe
Jesus is inviting us to see and think spiritually.