Some don’t. Oh… but some do!

Many of you have heard and are sharing in the rejoicing of the new converts up in the village where we work.  Back in June a team from local churches in East Tennessee visited us.  We worked together setting up health clinics, sports camps, and back yard bible schools.  One of the men that traveled with us became well acquainted with one of the leaders of this particular village, who happens to be Muslim.  Over the course of the week the chief leader developed a strong bond of trust in this man.

Weeks after the team had left one of our translators received a call from the chief to return to that village.  Upon his arrival he was led into a home of a severely ill young lady.  The chief explained the situation saying she had been having headaches and eventually had become blind and crippled in her hands.  She and her family were Muslim and they had been praying for healing.  She had even gone to several witch doctors and performed many demonic means of healing but nothing seemed to work.  When the chief had heard of her condition he had remembered the man and the people that had come a few weeks prior.  He remembered the stories he had heard of the healing work of Jesus Christ.  He asked the translator to pray over her hoping that the God of the people who had previously visited would be able to heal her.

The translator took the time to tell her and those around her who Jesus was and why he had power over sickness.  He walked her through the gospel and asked her if she believed in what she had heard.  She said yes, so then he instructed her to denounce Islam and rid herself of all that she had acquired from the witch doctors.  That day in the city of Mindu there was a great burning of all the idols she had collected.  The translator then began to pray over her, calling on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one true living God, who holds all power in heaven and earth, and asked that he would heal her in the name and the authority of Jesus Christ.  Beloved, that day that young lady was healed, physically and spiritually.  She denounced Islam as well as her brother, and to this day, against strong opposition, they are faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

My teammate and I have had the privilege of watching them grow.  Each week we return to the village to share stories with them from the Bible.  This last week we arrived at their home and their mother, who had witnessed the entire event, and had originally said that if her daughter was healed she too would denounce Islam and believe in Christ, greeted us.   She told us that her children had gone and wouldn’t return until the next day.  We asked her if she had thought any more about becoming a follower of Jesus.  She sheepishly began shaking her head, threw her hands up, and repeatedly said, “no, no, not today.  I don’t want it today. “ We asked if we could at least share a story with her to which she responded… “no, I don’t want to hear a story about him.”

What!?!?   After seeing what he could do first hand, how could she resist him?   After hearing about his great love and mercy, how was she not moved by him?  Why in the world… would she not be running to him?  Why can’t she understand that he is the truth that will set her free?   Why can’t she see that he holds the key to the door of her deliverance?  Why?  Why, would she hesitate to go to him?

As much as I pondered this and as perplexed as I was by it, it was just a matter of time before God would reveal to me a parallel truth about my own life.  How often I too hesitate to go to God.

I felt a little like Adam today.  You know, back in the garden when God was calling out to him asking him where he was, although he already knew the answer.  God would say to me, “Jill, what’s going on?  Where have you been?  Why are you distancing yourself from me?  Why aren’t you seeking me like you once were?  What is it that’s keeping you from coming to me? You know me.  You have seen my power displayed in your life first hand.  You have known my faithfulness, my love, and my mercy all of your days.  You know I have the truth that you seek, and I am your mighty deliverer.  So, Why?  Why, would you hesitate to come to me?”  Why in the world… Jill… would you stop running?”

There are a variety of foolish reasons that prevent us from going to God.  Guilt, shame, pride, fear, distraction… just to name a few.  But sometimes it simply comes down to our refusal to be confronted with the truth, because sometimes we know the truth is going to be hard  for us to hear.  Sometimes the truth is going to be both convicting and costly.  I think this mother’s refusal is an attempt to avoid hearing truth she already knows.  Truth that would be hard to hear.  Truth that would be both convicting and costly.  But truth that would… set her free.

What about us?  Are we willing to hear and respond to hard truth in order to be set free.  Seeing how so many believers live continual lives of bondage I would go as far to say that this question is just as pertinent to the believer as it is to the non. It simply comes down to what we really want.  What do we want?  Do we really want to be set free?  Some don’t.  Oh… but some do!