A thought by Max Lucado from his book, How Happiness Happens (p. 22). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book
title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
I did that this morning. It messed up my routine, but I needed to stop
during my walk and let a guy I wave to every morning stop and tell me his
story. And Jesus did that.
Max said, “A desperate woman once came
to see Jesus. She was out of doctors, money, and hope. But worst of all she was
out of friends. Her sickness rendered her ceremonially unclean, cut off from
her family and any house of worship. For more than a decade she’d been
ostracized from people. Then Jesus came to town. He was on his way to treat the
daughter of the synagogue leader. The crowd was thick, and people were pushing,
but she was desperate. Threading her arm through the crowd, she reached the hem
of his garment. And when she touched the hem of him, the bleeding stopped. ‘“Who
touched me?’” Jesus asked’ (Luke 8:45 NIV). The woman shrank back. A dozen
years of rejections had made her wary of attention. But Jesus said again that
someone had touched him. And this time she spoke up. ‘She came shaking with
fear and knelt down in front of Jesus. Then she told him the whole story’ (Mark
5:33 CEV).”
“The whole story! How long had it been
since someone had listened to her story? Jesus took time to hear her speak. He
had reason not to do so. The crowd was waiting, the city leaders were standing,
a girl was dying, people were pressing, the disciples were questioning, but
Jesus? He was listening. He stopped what he was doing, and he listened. He
didn’t have to. Healing the affliction would have been enough. Enough for her.
Enough for the crowds. But not enough for Jesus. He wanted to do more than heal
her body. He wanted to hear her story. The miracle restored her health. The
listening restored her dignity. And what he did next, the woman never forgot.
He affirmed her. He called her ‘daughter.’ This is the only time in the Gospels
that he called a woman by that name. ‘Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith
has made you well. Go in peace’ (Luke 8:48).”
Max goes on, “Do this for someone. Ask
someone to tell you his—or her—story. Resist the urge to interrupt or correct.
Turn off the television. Log off from the internet. Close your laptop; silence
your cell phone. Give the rarest of gifts: your full attention.”
Maybe that is what you need, you need to have someone give you their full attention. Maybe the first step is to reach out and
listen intently to them and then see what happens. Let’s
give our full attention to someone today, ok?
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