A Willingness to Touch

Below are a few thoughts I have writen, from the passage in Mark 1 where Jesus touches a leper.

Though the leper was considered highly contagious, Jesus was willing to touch him. There is a very important principle that arises from the way Jesus acted toward the leper.

Oftentimes we will only be able to help those that we are willing to touch. If we look at people through the lens of favoritism, we will never get close to them; we will never be able to touch and impact their life.

There are many ways for us to touch the lives of the people around us. We can touch someone’s life through great things as well as the small.

If someone is drowning and I jump in and save them, then I have touched that person’s life in a great way. But in order to save that drowning person, I have to touch them. I can’t save him/her without jumping in the water and grabbing them. There has to be that willingness to touch.

I am much more likely to touch someone’s life in small ways however. In fact we can touch people’s lives in small ways every day. If I take my neighbor some cookies, I touch their life, but I first have to touch their doorstep. By helping a friend with his taxes, I touch his life, but I first have to touch his papers. In order to touch a life, we need to touch the individual.

The individual whose life I do not touch is being relayed a message. “You are not important enough for me to touch.” If I do not touch the life of family or friends, I am saying that I do not care about them.

Do you get close enough to people that you can see the pain in their eyes? Are you able to see the sad smile on their face?

I once drove somewhere with a couple of guys from the youth group. On that day, we spent a few hours chatting and enjoying the scenery. We then each went our separate ways, but I noticed that throughout the week, both guys that had been on the trip with me kept coming to my mind. Even as I prayed, they would pop into my thoughts, and I would bring them before God in prayer. I found it interesting that the guys kept resurfacing in my mind even after just a simple drive.

Looking back, I understand that God used the “touch” principle to push me to pray for the guys. Because I had seen these guys, I had in a way touched their life, and God was able to use that touch later to remind me to bring them in prayer.

If you want to be used by God in a great way, start by touching people’s lives. Touch them by spending time with them; touch them by calling them on the phone. These things can become a marker in reminding you to pray for a specific person and her needs.

I heard about a woman who loved to pray for the sick at the hospitals. She did not pray for them from the comfort of her living room or church pew, however. She made it a point to actually go to the hospital and pray for them there. She would walk from room to room praying for the sick, her experience being a prime example of the desire to get close and touch.

There are many in need of a touch. Let’s get out of our houses and our selfish lifestyles and begin touching people. We need to look beyond the extraordinary and begin touching everyone, even those that others might label untouchable.