You Can Raise the Dead?!?

Wow it has been some time...too much time...but like I always say, a lot has gone on since my last post.

For one thing...I graduated from college...minor accomplishment with major implications for my life. Graduation opens the door to the rest of my life, well maybe not solely, but I now have to be a real adult. That is pretty scary.

For another thing...God seems to be really showing up right now, which is a prayer answered.

I just got back from Rockbridge, Intervarsity's Blue Ridge Region retreat from awesomeness. I always seem to go into it so expectant of massive transformation, and leave far more changed than I thought I would be. In fact, that is a running theme...I expect God to move and I expect God to change me, but my expectations are so conditional. I expect change to come in some capacity, that is arguably much smaller than what God can do...much like a scripture from this past week.

John 11:1-44 is the story of Lazarus...I hate calling it a story, but for right now it will suffice. Here we see Jesus, deeply saddened by the illness and subsequent death of his friend Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, raise Lazarus from the dead. I am not going to summarize the story much more because if you are interested, you should pick up the Bible and read it! But, one thing caught me off guard. This past week, one of the staff workers in the People of the Word track, my track, provided a brief bit of background about this miracle. Up until then, Jesus' power was thought to end at death. This meant that all of His power couldn't raise the dead. Well, we know how that theory worked out.

But the importance of this is in its parallels with my life, and what I assume is in many Christians' lives. We only expect God to do only so much. We put God's love in a box that can only do this and only do that...but when God really shows up, which is always when you allow Him to show up, that love goes above and beyond. We are just like the Jews in the story of Lazarus. If only Jesus could have been here, we say, then all of this would be ok. If only...well you know what, He has been here. And yet all we can seem to do is pull a Mary and Martha and sulk our way into a straw faith. We are so angry with God for not showing up in our lives, for not being there when we needed Him, that when He does show up, we are bitter and yearn for His attention. We want God to know we are angry at Him. We want Him to know how much He has supposedly let us down.

Wow...pretty conditional right?

First off...God doesn't always have to show up as a burning bush, or on this day of Pentecost, flaming tongues. In fact one of the most amazing appearances of God before Man is Elisha and the whisper. Elisha expected God to come in an earthquake, then a fire, and then a great wind...sound familiar? We look at God and expect Him to speak and move in one way, then when that doesn't work, we continue to expect Him to come in another way...it is pretty cyclical...until we learn to trust Him, and well, shut up. God is going to move...He is moving...

So Lazarus is raised from the dead, and most of the people present are struck with awe and belief. But to end this post, if you read the scripture, you see that some go to the Pharisees, who eventually use this information to plot Jesus' death. So what are you going to do when God shows up?

What have you been doing?