One afternoon while we were visiting Muizenberg, South Africa, where Leif’s brother and his wife serve as missionaries with YWAM, we drove down the coast, south of Cape Town, to an area known as Boulders Beach, which is famous for its penguins. I was thrilled. The only place I had ever seen a penguin was in a zoo and of course, on a movie screen.
We pulled into a parking lot and followed the trail to a rocky beach. As we’re walking I’m looking everywhere for the penguins, because I don’t want to miss them.
Leif’s brother, Hans, notices my intense searching and assures me, “Margaret, you won’t miss the penguins. I promise.”
We rounded the bend in the trail, and I look over, and there are two penguins standing in front of a shrub sporting long curled beaks and tuxedo colors. Being Margaret, I shout out “Penguinos!” because I am so excited.
Looking further down the trail, I can see dozens of penguins gathered around the rocks near the shore, but I’m enamored with this one penguin. I slowly approach him, hold out my iPhone and snap this picture on my camera:
Here’s the interesting thing, he didn’t move. This penguin engaged in a visual standoff with me for several minutes.
I remember asking Hans, “Why isn’t the penguin moving?”
“Because as long as he stands still, he doesn’t think you can see him…”
As I sat in silence with these creatures, I had a God-thought pop into my mind that simply said, “You do this sometimes, too.”
It that moment, I realized that like the penguins, I sometimes convince myself that somehow God doesn’t see me. That somehow I, too, can hide in plain sight. That maybe if I stand still long enough or remain quiet, that God won’t see the portions of myself that I don’t really want him to notice—my sin, my pain, my brokenness, my vulnerability. [Tweet this] That maybe God will pass by and I can remain hidden.
Yet time and time again in the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals that which is hidden. Jesus sees right through our layers of self-protection, our self-defenses, our desires to remain hidden.
Like the woman at the well in John 4.
Sometimes we have to come to terms with the fact that as hard as we try to hide, God not only sees us but in his love, he sees through our efforts to hide. [Tweet this]
Though we try to empty our bag of tricks—standing perfectly still, moving excessively fast, or diverting attention elsewhere—God sees and exposes us.
But that exposure is always an invitation to healing, restoration, and wholeness. [Tweet this] The exposure is not meant for disgrace but to create a work of beauty in our lives.
This week we dove into John 4-8. You can catch up on this week, here.
FOR DISCUSSION: Answer the following questions as a comment to this blog post. Feel free to ask questions, reply to others’ comments, and post prayer requests.
- Through Jesus, God’s life-giving activity is unleashed among the people. Which of the miracles Jesus performed in the first five chapters of John is most meaningful to you in your own faith journey right now? (page 44)
- God can open physical eyes and God can open spiritual eyes, which are sometimes called the eyes of the heart. What would you like God to reveal to you or help you see more clearly in your life? (page 54)
LINK UP. Click HERE to link up your blog post on what God is revealing to you in His Word.
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I think standing still makes me more vulnerable so I think I cope by moving as fast as I can.
That’s a great analogy. I think you’re totally right, Heather. Instead of holding still, how many times do we busy ourselves, running around like a chicken without their head, to distract us from what God wants to do in our lives? I know I’m guilty of that.
Seeing the picture of the penguin makes me want to hug him. haha… In a greater sense I agree that sometimes God’s children are the same. I often pretend to be still, thinking God won’t see me. I’m guilty of being vulnerable to sin but it simply feels great to think that despite of being so naive, God showers me a love beyond compare. To God be the glory!
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Wow, never thought I would identify with a penguin. Also noticed black and white stripes, like the prisoner we become when we hide. Lesson for leadership: people don’t get involved because they don’t want to blow their cover.
You are so right, Tracy. Even in our vulnerability God showers us with his love!
I love that, Paula! I never thought of it. While we think we’re being smart and elusive by standing still, we are really just prisoners under the weight of sin. Instead of allowing God to restore and redeem, we hide. Instead of allowing ourselves to be molded and shaped by God, we hide. Beautiful picture!
The miracle that speaks the most to me is when Jesus healed the man beside the pool who had no help. Personally this means a lot to me right now. It’s not that I don’t have help, because I do, but I just moved to Germany to be a full-time missionary as of 7 weeks ago. I am working in an area with many American missionaries and have become friends with some of them already. That is not the problem. The problem is I am a single guy and there aren’t many single guys here (as in one or two other single American guys) and I son’t speak enough Germany to become close with any German…yet.
I am not alone, but sometimes it can feel like I’m trying to do the right things, trying to engage with people, trying to share the love of Christ, but I just don’t have the one thing that I need to be able to achieve it. Like the man near the pool who just wanted someone to put him in the pool after it was stirred, I look for that friend too.
Jesus, yet again shows me that He is my friend, and He is enough, and He will provide everything I need to do what He has called me to do
What I would love to see more clearly is whether my desire and longing for a wife and family is from God or from the flesh. Not everyone gets married and in the end I have to be ok with that possibility. If this longing is from God then I know I will be married some day. If it is of the flesh than I will be on my knees in prayer, daily, to ask for the strength to lose that desire.
First of all, thank you for stepping out in faith and serving God’s Kingdom. Even if at times it may seem fruitless, I know God is doing powerful things in and through you and your ministry.
Praying that you feel the soft pinch of God’s presence this week especially, Jacob.
Powerful read. Finding myself in so much of this…awareness can be painful.
Yes, Melinda. That awareness can be so painful. Reminds me of that scene in C.S. Lewis’ Dawn Treader. Eustace turns into a dragon– an outward picture of his greedy heart. Aslan begins pluck each scale one by one from his skin… painful, but soon he is freed from his sin and loved just as he is.
There are so many incredible miracles that that I really love that speak of Jesus’ love for the marginalized, His longing for equality, replacing tradition with right-doing. Currently, the one that speaks to me more is the story of Jesus walking on water to help his disciples in a storm on the sea. Not only was He aware of their fears and needs, He arrived at just the right time. But the picture that just blew me away is that my lifeguard can walk on water! Stormy water at that!
The miracles of Jesus really push me out of my comfort zone as I see Jesus loving the oppressed and marginalized. Truly challenges me to do the same! The story of Jesus walking on water is one of my favorites. So often I’m tempted to read through and call Peter a wuss for not trusting Jesus, but then I remember how often I fall short in my trust. Luckily for me, Christ knows our faults and limitation and loves us still! Wonderstruck!
The miracle that speaks to me is the woman at the well, because after naming her I can really relate to the whole story.
I would like God to help me see more clearly or discern false prophets from true prophets especially in these “last days.”
Jacob, just know that God hears your prayers and knows your hearts desire of finding a wife. The hard thing to do is wait on His timing, but if you do, you will be tremendously blessed. My husband waited 41 years in prayer to find me, and as we both prayed (before ever meeting) for God’s choice for each of us, I can say that we are tremendously blessed in now, though later in life. God constantly reminds me that if I seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, then all these things will be added unto me. In my own personal desire, I am seeking true Christian friendships, which amazingly I am finding hard to find. As I am giving my heart’s desire to Him for these, I am trusting in His timing with them, and instead I am going to focus on Matt 6:33, and if it is His will, in His timing, He WILL bring me my heart’s desire. Just as He did when I met my husband. Stay encouraged. God’s ways are always better than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours. There is always the right season, and the time it is brought to fruition. Remain encouraged. God just might be setting up the perfect conditions so that you will find your true love by His hand. 🙂
God has opened my spiritual eyes a bit more, as He works with me concerning being offended by other people. I was raised to be perfect, and though I have been learning that perfection in a worldly meaning is ALOT different than God’s definition (and I am being set free), I still have a hard time giving grace to others in their imperfect choices that may or may not affect me. (Sometimes other people’s accidents involve you, or affect you in some small or large way, if not directly.) God has opened my eyes a bit more when I studied Day One of the 2nd session. I realize now the amazing grace Jesus extended to the 38-year sick man who just couldn’t make it to the pool each year when the water was stirred. Instead, I would judge him as to why he NEVER was able to get himself to the water. Some people are so lost in their troubles, that they just remain lost, no matter how hard one tries to help. I know someone like this. It was part of the reason my first marriage ended (a marriage I felt was God-directed, so there is that confusion I have been grappling with also).
In today’s world, people do so many selfishly different things it is hard to choose grace and forgiveness and not take offense. God is really teaching me how to navigate around other people and change my heart, so that I can have the right reaction and honor Him. I’m surely a work in progress, and I am getting there. It also helped me to study the juxtaposition in #4’s “Jesus’ claim” with “why the claim angered the Jewish religious leaders”. It helps me to see that sometimes we tend to act like the religious leader in judgement instead of reacting with grace & forgiveness like Jesus would have done. Very humbling. Very spiritually eye-opening.
I keep wondering about the man who had been ill for 38 years. Interesting the Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well. I supposed that means we need to want what Jesus has to offer. Later it says Jesus found him at the temple. Jesus told him to stop sinning. Does anyone else think that is interesting? The man has lain on a mat for 38 years, he’s healed and goes to the temple and Jesus’s first comment to him is you are well again. Stop sinning. Does that imply he was ill because he sinned 38 years ago? Or did he sin between the pool and the temple? Or was he headed out to sin and Jesus saw that? Or was it the conversation with the Jewish leaders where he didn’t seem to know who Jesus was. Then later the man goes back to the Jewish leaders because he knows it is Jesus who healed him.
Contrast that story with the healing of the man born blind. Jesus said neither the man nor his parents’ sin caused the blindness. After that man’s interaction with the Jewish leaders, Jesus also goes to find him. But that conversation is about believing in the Son of Man.
I know that what Jesus says to each person is based on their need. I am just curious about the man who’d been paralyzed for 38 years.
I am glad that naming her really brought that story to life for you, Birdie!
I’m thrilled to hear how God is working in your heart and in your life, Lori! Often we are so tempted to act more like the pharisees than like Jesus! I read this incredible survey that was done about that topic. I think you’ll find it enlightening:
http://margaretfeinberg.com/the-single-hardest-question-youll-ever-ask-as-a-christian/
Laura, you are asking some great questions! Some we may never know the answers, too. I would suggest opening a commentary to see if other scholars have written about that. I hadn’t thought about that particular part before.
Margaret, Yes, I will add those questions to my list of other questions I hope to get answered in heaven — although I suspect once we get to heaven, the power of God’s presence will be so overwhelming, our questions will no longer matter, much like Job when he railed at God for 30 something chapters. Then God spoke and Job said oh I didn’t mean it. (Paraphrased!)
I still keep thinking about Jesus telling the man to stop sinning. I think you are very brave to ask God to reveal so much to you. I’ve asked, timidly, for God to show me if there is something I need to stop doing. So far, I can’t see it. Hoping it will be a soft landing if there’s something out there. Blessings. Laura
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