Meddling

When I see a problem, I want to help. Most of the time, I have no clue on how to fix the situation. Yet, I go ahead and meddle.

If a surgeon were doing major surgery on someone I cared about, I would probably be trying to get my hands in there trying to ‘help’. Or at the very least, I’d feel compelled to offer suggestions and maybe a few reminders on how the surgeon could be more efficient. Fortunately, they have a policy against friends and family in the operating room, or else, I would have probably killed a few people by now. 

One of my favorite Gospel stories is that of the paraplegic man who was lowered through the roof by his friends (Luke 5:17-26). They had faith that Jesus could heal their friend. The only problem was getting him close enough to Jesus who was inside a house surrounded by people. So the friends carried the man up to the roof and lowered him down, right in front of Jesus. The Lord is “impressed by their bold belief” (Luke 5:18-20 MSG) and heals the paraplegic.

These friends knew exactly how far to ‘help’. They were bold enough and pushy enough to go through a stranger’s roof and crash a party. But once they were sure that their friend was in front of Jesus, they stood back and waited. Not one of them tried to scale down a rope into the house and offer to be an assistant healer to Jesus. They trusted Jesus to take care of the situation.

 

When I’m faced with a difficult problem that is beyond my ability to solve, I have to do whatever it takes to get it to Jesus. Once the situation is laid right in front of the Lord, I have to stand back and let Him do his work without meddling or offering helpful suggestions and reminders.