Daily Lesson for July 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 5 verses 24 through 34:

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years.26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’31And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32He looked all round to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

For years I was in a small group which deeply changed me as a person and minister. Every week we gather and each of us shared and then each of us responded to the others’ sharing with a feeling and a question. It was astounding how hard it was at first get in touch with our feelings and not thoughts, and how difficult it was to limit ourselves to a single question rather than a lot of advice. A feeling and a question were the rules. As we learned to practice them the group was transformed and so was I as a person. 

In the Lesson today there is a feeling and a question. Even amidst all the other things going on in the scene, Jesus feels the woman’s touch.  He was in touch with his senses, in touch with others. And then there’s a question. “Who touched me?” he asks. The question then begins the woman’s full journey to restoration. At the touch she is healed of her disease. But only after the question, and then her own response does she find peace. 

A feeling and a question. The next time you’re with someone in a serious or therapeutic conversation try it. Practice it. Be disciplined about it. For it has the power to transform our whole encounter in the presence of the one across from us.