One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” -Luke 5:17-20
Have you ever thought of faith being creative? Or how about the need for faith to be demonstrated in a creative way?
I think many times we get stuck in the same routines and traditions that we fail to think outside the box and find new ways of doing things. Or maybe we see certain needs but think we are powerless to do anything about it and we give up rather than get creative.
Not these friends in this story! I am inspired not only by their faith, but their creative faith. In fact, here are three things we can learn from their example:
1). They were caring: This was not an easy task to carry a paralyzed man to Jesus. They obviously cared about their friend and recognized he could not do this on his own. He was dependent upon their care for him if he had hope of being healed by Jesus. I wonder how many people are depending on us to care enough to carry them to Jesus, even if it might hard work, require some effort and energy, and take some time?
2). They worked collectively: It strikes me that it was not just one friend, but multiple friends who worked together in sync and collectively to fulfill this task. This reminds me that the work of the ministry and caring for others is not up to any one of us alone. We need each other and need to work together. We can share the burden together and show our care collectively.
3). They got creative: These friends could have easily got discouraged and given up when they arrived and saw the crowds were too big to get their friend in the normal way to Jesus. But instead of getting discouraged, they got creative! The crowd was blocking them from going in through the front door as usual, but they simply found another way by cutting a hole through the roof. Obstacles, challenges, crisis, and barriers should not cause us to give up so easily. Instead, we need to get creative and find new ways of getting people to Jesus. The message never changes, but our methods should.
This time of COVID has been a disruption and crisis worldwide to the normal ways of doing things. But crisis is a time for care, collaboration, and creativity. Let us continue to be like these friends in this story: caring, collective, and creative.
Ben Foley 