Go deeper with others.

One of the things we tend to wonder about is “How does a person become a Christian?” What, exactly, does that process entail? We know God wants to give us a full, abundant life in Christ, but how does that start? A very familiar and popular story in chapter two of Mark’s gospel reminds us just how simple it is to become a follower of Jesus and embark on the new life he offers – because God knows what we need, and he’s eager to give it to us.

One thing you notice when you read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry – and especially in his encounters with people – is that he was somewhat unpredictable. Which makes sense, because our own experience is that God the Father is sometimes unpredictable as well – we want him to be on our schedule, to fix our problems when we want them fixed, but his timing and his schedule is different from ours. One of the keys to life is to trust in his wisdom and his timing, and the story of “dueling miracles” from Mark chapter 5 is a great illustration of that.

Those who observed Jesus noticed something very unusual about him: he hung out with all the wrong people. Instead of spending his time with the religious, the righteous and the “good people,” he surrounded himself with folks the “good” people had given up on – including the worst of the worst. The friends he chose to spend time with tell us much about the power of grace and about how it works.