CRISIS COMRADES
“Stupid rubs off” - Bill Hybels
As does doubt, complacency, cynicism, and the critical spirit – they all rub off. The good news is that hope, joy, faith, ingenuity, creativity and the positive spirit are also contagious.
The people around us will determine the climate of our experience; and in life’s journey we have to be fiercely protective over the atmosphere we dwell in.
Spiritual atmosphere is paramount.
Healthy spiritual atmosphere is not luck or happenstance; it requires a concerted effort navigated strictly by a compass whose true north is victory. Any hint of defeat, lack or hopelessness must be expelled.
Jesus was ruthless in creating strong spiritual atmospheres. It blows me away how unapologetic He was.
In the book of Luke, the eighth chapter, Jesus arrives at the bedside of a lifeless 12-year-old girl. There is a crowd of people wailing and mourning her loss - probably family, friends and neighbours who knew her and loved her.
In true Jesus fashion, He enters the scene by making a frustratingly controversial announcement, “She’s not dead but asleep – stop wailing.” The crowd turns on Him and laughs.
How utterly shocking is the insincerity of their expression? They go from crying to laughing in the blink of an eye. I learned several years ago that intimidation is a spirit and it will use any means necessary to get me off guard.
Clearly this crowd was not genuinely mourning if they could turn tears into mocking scoffs so easily. But their presence could have been enough to unsettle the spiritual atmosphere of the house and compromise a miracle.
So, Jesus told them to be silent and told them to leave! I love this.
Truly the only Directive to intimidation is silence and eviction.
There is no time or room for that.
OUT! In the name of this forthcoming miracle, you’re outta here! A ruthless, unapologetic cleaning out of fear, doubt, resistance and opposition – OUT!
Then He turns to his own 12 disciples and kicks nine of them out. Occasionally, even the majority of His own disciples were excluded from the presence of an imminent miracle. Why? Because some of them were doubters, some of them were skeptics, some of them had hidden agendas, some of them were too smart for their own good, or the good of the person needing the breakthrough.
Hello!! Are you as blown away by this as me? Not only the wailing crowd, but even nine of His own posse were asked to vacate the house. Wow!
Who were the three disciples allowed to stay in the room with Jesus, the little girl and her parents? I want to know who they were. If they passed Jesus’ criteria for Crisis Camaraderie then I want to know their characteristics so I can choose friends like that.
It was Peter, James and John (Luke 8: 51). The three men most characterized by faith, love and hope. They were each individually an embodiment of blind faith - sometimes irrational, often impulsive, fully persuaded, emotionally invested men.
The only ones Jesus wanted with Him as He rose a broken promise back to life were the ones completely with Him without reservation or question.
When crisis strikes you want to make sure you are surrounded with people who will speak life not death. You want people who will not give air to doubt, negativity or worry. Even in the presence of unfavourable realities, you want people who will silence your fears with contagious hope and an incurable sense of possibility.
There may be a crowd of opinion you need to silence. There may be a few friends you need to select and draw close. Conclusively though, you want to be surrounded by people who are full of hope and faith, who will back you, push you, believe more for you and draw the best out of you.
You want the kind of crisis comrades who will lift your eyes and draw you out of the haze.
I have two challenges that arise within me when I consider this topic:
Firstly, who speaks faith into my world?
Secondly, am I a friend who speaks faith into another person’s crisis?
Would I be asked to stay in the room?
It is a person unsatisfied with the status quo, who will seek an audience with big-thinking, solution-driven, positive people. Ultimately that person understands that the way life will look in the future is largely determined by their choice of company today.
“Become wise by walking with the wise; hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.” Proverbs 13:20 (MSG)
As we take stock of our lives, we need to understand that our comrades are either promoting or terminating the promises and plans of God over our lives.
I remember a time when Sam and I received a report from the doctor regarding our unborn baby. We were informed of several findings on the 20-week ultrasound that were not favourable for the wellbeing of our daughter. We were told she would most likely not survive.
I remember the flood of fear that completely engulfed me. A crowd of many wailing and chaotic voices haunting my thoughts. One was the black-on-white doctor’s report mocking me from my bedside table. Another spoke to me through weeks of broken sleep in nightmares, exasperating my helplessness. Yet another, and perhaps the cruelest, was the voice of my past, which constantly bullied the Grace of God on my life. “You thought you got away with all those things in your past. Well you didn’t. It’s time to pay.” These were intimidating voices of the wailing, laughing and insincere crowd in the house of my mind.
I remember one day looking at Sam and asking him “Is it going to be alright?”
“Yes,” he said, and those three little letters became the start of my weaponry.
I marched myself into the office of a mighty prayer warrior and told her my story - for the first time airing the report to someone outside my family. She gave me two pages of scripture like a doctor prescribing medication, and instructed me to read them aloud and in first person everyday. She became another Crisis Comrade I chose to draw into my miracle room with Jesus.
I have done this over and over in the years since then, each time a dream has been threatened. I have allowed my broken heart to be encouraged by a select few Crisis Comrades. I have learned how to silence the skeptics. I have learned how to silence myself. I have learned to trust Jesus’ often-controversial testimony, and the confession of those with blind faith. I have committed to being that sort of friend to others.
Together with my Crisis Comrades I have seen miracles.
[Inspired by Bill Hybels, Simplify and Mark Ramsey, Spiritually Transmitted Diseases]
