That Moment When . . .

I love the “that awkward moment” jokes on Facebook. Like, “That awkward moment when someone yells at you for clicking your pen, but you have to click it one more time to use it.” Or, “That awkward moment when someone in the meeting says, ‘Let’s get down to business,’ and you were just about to ask if they think Mister Bates is really in trouble on Downton Abbey.” Or the really cute ones like, “That awkward moment when you realize that Santa has the same wrapping paper as your mom.”

 

Sometimes the jokes come with a picture that really drives the joke home. Often they’re really ridiculous and they beg for me to share them with my friends too. And once in a while they connect with me and I think, “Oh my goodness, I’ve been there!”

Life can be filled with awkward moments. We have to learn to just ride them out with grace. Some of my days are just filled with “excuse me” and “I’m so sorry” as I navigate many awkward moments among people.

But we can also find ourselves in moments that are more than awkward. And those moments may stretch into minutes, and minutes into hours, and hours into . . . well, who knows? Life can be difficult at times and we may find ourselves in storms and dark places that leave us looking for help and longing for light.

In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we find the story of a woman who had been in a dark place for twelve years. She had been suffering from some sort of bleeding for that long. This condition would have disqualified her from marriage and from any religious life in general (see Lev. 15 and 20). But that didn’t stop her from seeking the One who could change her life:

A large crowd followed and pressed around him [Jesus]. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” . . . Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (vv. 24-30, 33-34)

Do not be mistaken: If this woman had touched someone else’s clothes thinking that would have done the job, she would have left the same way she came. Just thinking it’s true doesn’t make it so.

But connecting with the power of Jesus through complete trust in him . . . that’s faith. It’s like completing an electrical circuit—just don’t ask me to explain how that works! I only know that they’re alike in that there is a completion of a flow of power with an energy source.

And all it takes is one touch.