We live in a time in history when we are busier than any other time than I can think. Technology has allowed us to be able to stay on the go and never have to miss a call, an email, a text, or video call. We can actually have a face to face conversation with someone on the other side of the world on our smart phone. We don’t have to disconnect from our technology for anything except sleep. You see families out to eat together and they are all on their smart phones checking Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat…I don’t know all the ways we can stay connected. Yes, we can be more connected than ever, but it is all so impersonal. It is all geared for our convenience, our life, and our time schedule. We never have to look up because everything is in the palms of our hands. Having all that can kind of makes us feel good about ourselves. We are so important, our daily lives don’t have to stop for anything.
Here is where all of that hits a wall for me…other people. This past Sunday we looked into the lives of four nameless men who set aside everything that had to do with themselves and put their focus on someone else. In Mark 2:1-12 we see a story of how Jesus healed a paralytic man. This is not an unusual thing to read in the gospels. You can start in Matthew and just look at the heading above different sections and see story after story of Jesus healing people and raising the dead. What sets this story apart is those four nameless men who put this paralytic’s physical and spiritual need above their own and went to great lengths to help a crippled man who could not help himself. They brought this man to the only One who could help him. They truly had a burden that called them to action.
We are called to be like these four men who bore the stretcher of the paralytic man. Do you have a burden for others? Has God put someone on your heart that will spur you to action? Do you ever pray for the spiritual well-being of others? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves. This may take disconnecting from our daily routine and our personal devices that keep us connected to this world and connecting with those people who desperately need a connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a world filled with people that are spiritually paralyzed, we just have to take our eyes off of ourselves and look for them.
I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4:35b
