Janie Slaven: THE PREACHER'S DAUGHTER: What if she gave up?

Janie Slaven, The Times-Tribune, Corbin, Ky.
·3 min read

Apr. 9—I want you to reflect on the most desperate season of your life. If you can't think of one, then consider yourself blessed. Some of you may even have multiple seasons of desperation, speaking from experience I have had many.

During these seasons of desperation Christ isn't estranged from us, he is actually so close we can reach out and touch him.

As women sometimes I feel as if we try to hold everything up? We trade in what's left the scraps... so others don't do without. Mind you this is honorable, I don't feel that this is God's perfect plan. This becomes even more so evident during "desperate seasons." When you find yourself desperate you go to great lengths to make it, Jesus wants you to know he's willing to do the same for you.

I teach a K-1 Sunday school class at our church. Today's lesson set my mind into overdrive. It's one of my favorite stories from the Bible.

The word tells us in Luke 8:43-48 about a woman in a desperate season. No doubt she had been merely surviving, I envision her home full of expired goods. In fact to many the fact that she was viewed as "unclean" in light of a continuous issue of blood was enough for many to view her as discarded and expired as a human being.

"And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

And Jesus said, "Who touched me?" When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? and Jesus said, "Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me."

And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

And he said unto her, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace."

Can you imagine that level of exhaustion and desperation. She pressed through the crowd, which no doubt was full of nasty feet and filth in efforts to touch Jesus. Her desperation ultimately led to her healing. She sat her eyes on the hem of his garment.

That leads me to a thought I had today; what if she gave up? What if she stopped midway, laid down, and accepted her current state of desperation. What if she allowed disbelief to stifle her?

Often it's easy to take on this mindset. How do I know? I've lived it. I am grateful that despite her agony, humiliation, and fatigue she kept pressing. She had unshakeable faith. No matter what. Her faith is the kind of faith I hope for.

If you are in need of restoration, if you are tired of merely surviving, I have good news. The same Jesus who healed the bleeding woman, can heal a broken spirit. He can heal trauma. He can remove strong holds. He can redeem, deliver, and make well again. His love doesn't expire.

Faith during desperation is a powerful thing. When you're exhausted, tired, and beat down, that's when Jesus often does his most powerful work. If you allow him to.

You have never been more loved than you are right now, this very second. Keep pressing through the crowd, Jesus is within reach.

Desperation isn't defeat, sometimes it's the beginning.

Erinn Williams is originally from Williamsburg, and now resides in Owensboro, Ky. The daughter of a teacher and a preacher, she hopes to make a difference through her words. She serves as an elementary educator in Daviess County, and writes for Owensboro Parent magazine in western Kentucky. She can be contacted at erinn.williams2017@gmail.com.