Marketing alert! Just a heads up that my new book comes out in two or three weeks (you can also pre-order it here) so I’ll be using reflections and stories from the book through June. Maybe longer. 🙂
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 17:19, CEB)
The very first story I tell in the book is about the time that Trey Hall (the other co-founder of Urban Village Church) and I had one of our first public gatherings. We did our best to put the word out about a theological conversation over coffee at a Starbucks and I made a little paper tent that told the world that we were a new church. One person stopped by. One. As the evening went along, that little paper tent started to sag until it was nearly flat by the time we left. To say my hopes for this new venture were flat, too, would be an understatement.
There have been numerous times that we’ve had a less-than-stellar turnout for an event at Urban Village. Which is why this story in Luke 17:11-19 is one of my favorites. Jesus heals ten men with skin diseases, but despite this miraculous turn of events, only one of them bothers to return to say thank you. I have no idea what might have been going through Jesus’ mind when this happened, but his first comment is, “Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”
I have no idea what was going through Jesus mind when he said this, but there’s a little part of me that wants to believe that Jesus was disappointed by this turnout/response. It helps me in times when I don’t get a response that I desire and spend the next few hours (or days) stewing about the lack of turnout or gratitude. Jesus barely bats and eye: “Then Jesus said to (the one who returned), ‘Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.’”Jesus doesn’t stew. He sees what’s in front of him and responds with grace.
Disappointments abound in our lives. We can either rue what might have been or open our eyes to what’s in front of us and realize that God is in the one just as much as God is in the multitudes.