The Fellowship of Joy

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash Mark 5 Each of these had an identity crisis. One man was so torn by the forces within him that he no longer knew his true name. A woman had allowed herself to be defined by a persistent illness. A little girl was being defined by a death that would not ultimately prevail. Get Up Little Girl "Little girl, " he called, "Damsel," indeed, a damsel in distress, ""Talitha cum," he cried, “Get up!" And she got up. There can be no reign if death when Jesus comes. There can be no victory of infirmity when Jesus is present. There is no harshness or cold indifference. There is no unsympathetic dismissal of the pain of the moment. Jesus will speak to us whether we are dead or alive and, inside of ourselves, we will hear and rise. Little boy, little girl, little man, little woman, hear the voice of Jesus, "Get up." He speaks with affection, compassion, and absolute authority. “Get up!” You who have fallen asleep i

Kathleen Peterson,  https://www.kathleenpetersonart.com Filled with Awe “And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another,  ‘What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? ’” -Mark 4:41 It was when Jesus brought calm that the disciplines found the space to experience the fear. What they had been experiencing before that was the terror and dread of being shipwrecked in the storm. Now, however, it was a kind of holy fear, an experience of the unknown for which they had no frame of reference. What do you do with that? So, the fear that the men had when Jesus calmed the sea was not terror, it was breathtaking awe. It was that overwhelming disorientation that comes when you realize that you control nothing. It is coming to understand, with Anselm, that there is a God who is greater than anything we can conceive of or imagine. We are knocked off of our feet by the magnitude of the divine presence. We are enveloped in glory. We are struck down by power. At the same t