April 9, 2001
CYBERCOLUMN:
Beyond the periphery
___By Donna Van Cleve
___The woman thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." So, in the midst of a large crowd of people pressing around Jesus, she reached out and touched his cloak. Immediately, she felt a difference in her body and knew she had been healed of an illness with which she had suffered for 12 years. In her joy, she started to slip quietly away.
___Jesus turned around.
DONNA VAN CLEVE
___"Who touched my clothes?" he asked the people.
___His disciples were taken aback. "Lord, people have been crowding around you and touching you all day, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
___But there was a difference in this particular touch--someone had reached out to him in a faith, believing that merely touching his clothes would heal. He continued to look around to see who had done it.
___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."
___I love that story in the Bible. But I wonder how many times we Christians have come to church to crowd together and talk about Jesus, trying to get closer to him and walk beside him; and yet our contact with him is so superficial. Rarely do we reach out in faith to release God's power within us. We tend to rely on ourselves and our own meager strengths and abilities rather than God.
___Many of us have become too comfortable in the periphery of our faith in God. Periphery means the external boundary of something, or the external surface of a body.
___We can stay fairly busy at the local church, the body of Christ, and still be in the periphery of our faith. It may be our busy-ness that sometimes masks a shallow relationship with Christ.
___I know that for truth. Been there, done that too many times in my own life. It's hard to get to know the Lord on a more intimate level when we keep him at arm's length. We read and talk about him among each other; we talk at him, throwing our endless requests and problems out there somewhere for him to fix. We so Pharisaically pat ourselves on the back when we get to check off that daily Bible reading and prayer box on our weekly Sunday School record. And we hope we're somehow in God's will as we're working so hard in our own efforts at church. But we don't know him.
___We can be in the periphery of the body by accepting Christ but still remaining immature in our faith. We're too attached to our old habits to allow Christ to grow us spiritually, which would bring about a change in our hearts, attitudes and habits. Therefore, we attend church when it's convenient, or when there's nothing better to do, or when we want a fuzzy, feel-good experience at Easter or Christmas.
___We don't have to get involved in church. We tell ourselves we can worship God just as well at the ranch or the coast or on the riverbank on Sundays. We have our names on the church roll and a "fire insurance policy," and we know the answer to the question we are assuming will be asked when our eternal fate is decided. But we don't know him.
___A third definition of periphery pertains to anatomy--the area in which the nerves end. Isn't that interesting? Our feelings are much more sensitive in the periphery. That is the place of unforgiveness, anger, resentment, egotism, false assumptions, only wanting things done our way and so many other negative traits that tend to fade away the closer we get to know Christ.
___When our focus is on anything other than Christ, our spiritual vision is also blurry in the periphery. Living in the periphery of our faith is like being on a team, but always on the bench or the sidelines and never in the actual game. But we sure like to tell everyone else how to play.
___Jesus is waiting for each of us to step out of the periphery and reach out to him in faith. He'll recognize the difference in the touch of your heart.
___Donna Van Cleve is director of the public library in Cotulla, a writer, wife, mother and member of First Baptist Church in Cotulla, where she is pianist.
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