How Soon Can You Get Here?

 

I was listening to a message being given the other day by a woman who was sharing her testimony to a packed auditorium at a conference a few months ago.  She was passionately sharing her story that included years of torment from distress, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and debilitating depression.  Being the daughter of a well known and respected leader in the Christian community, she often worried that her mental illness would be seen as weakness in faith and distrust in the God she claimed to love and serve.

In an effort to get help, her and her husband, who is also a well renown speaker and pastor of our day, reached out to friends and family for prayer support.

For months they experienced the love of God through the many attempts at support from a well-intentioned community who offered to lift her up in prayer, and who generously extended practical provision that included meals, babysitting, and contact info for some recommended Christian therapy.

“And these are ALL good things”, she said.  “All of it!”  “And we were grateful to have those people in our lives.”

But what she said after that is what really changed the game for me.

She explained that there was only one person who offered her more than anything anyone else was willing or able to offer.

In what seemed like a “last ditch effort” her husband called on a pastor in California whom they had had the pleasure of serving alongside of in many arenas over the course of the last decade.  This pastor had acted as a mentor to the couple both from a distance, and up close as they were able to share the platform on many occasions.

One day this woman’s husband called their pastor friend who lived over 2,000 miles from them and shared what was happening with his wife.  When the pastor friend heard what had been going on and realized their desperate need for healing and restoration.. and recognizing that the attack on their lives was evil and the crippling effects it was having on their lives and ministry, the friend said 6 words that altered the course of their lives.  He said this, “How soon can you get here?”

Because this friend knew something about relationships in the context of spiritual family.  He understood that this required more than a flowery, “I’ll pray for you” response. 

This was war.
And it required warfare at it’s finest.

This man understood that in his human weakness he had nothing more to offer than Jesus.  And that if he could get here there and if he could touch her with the love of Jesus, revival could happen within her life and the life of her family.

And so it goes that the couple would leave their home for nearly one year of their lives to be closer to the one who’s sacrifice made all the difference in the world.  They would move themselves and their 5 kids to be close to the one who not only reflected Jesus, and extended compassion, but who was, like Jesus, MOVED with compassion.

And subsequently healing would take place and complete transformation would be the result.

All because of relationship.
And sacrifice.
And loving well.

And so it will begin in my own life… the process of reevaluating relationships.  Choosing to love better.  Allowing myself the sometimes uncomfortraibility of self-sacrifice that requires being Jesus with skin on.

Because it matters. 
We owe it to those we've been entrusted with to offer better solutions than pretty suggestions to life’s most painful circumstances.

After all - we’re all just walking each other home.

Let’s do it well.