Principles for Positive Change
By Reverend Jeff Falkowski
Pastor, Trinity Church, Jasper, GA
And He said unto her, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace,
and be whole of thy plague.” -- Mark 5:34
Most people I talk to want to change something about their
lives. Whether they want to lose weight, become more disciplined financially or take charge of their hectic schedules.
The list of “things” people want to change about life are
limitless. If this observation is the case, then why is there
such little change or no real change in people’s lives, even
for those who have a stated desire? I am glad you asked.
I believe there are four principles we can learn from the
story of a woman who endured a difficult situation from the
Gospel Mark.
The principles that can be deduced from the story (Mark
5: 21-42) are as follows: First, we must be desperate for
change; second, we must be determined to change; third,
we must expect to change and, finally, we must persevere to
press through the barriers to change.
We must be truly desperate or at least we must have
the attitude of desperation if we want to change. In the
story, we discover a woman who had been “subject to
bleeding for twelve years.” This woman had a problem and
she knew it. She had tried to change her situation for twelve
years, but fell short. I am not going to say she didn’t desire
to change. She obviously did. However, though she used
tactics that often worked for others, they weren’t working
for her. For whatever reason, she did not try something
new or different until she realized she was hitting a wall and
making no progress. Amazingly, it took her twelve years to
figure this out!
As the old saying goes, “The definition of insanity is to
try the same thing over and over again, expecting different
results.” Friends, why do we keep on employing the same
tactics when they don’t work? Perhaps the pain of real
change in our minds far outweighs the pain of remaining in
our current situations. It is not until we move beyond
simple desire and become truly desperate that we will
employ the effort to learn what really works and put it into
practice. For this woman, her own efforts weren’t working;
thus, she reached out to Jesus and found what she needed
to change her situation.
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What about you? What are you tired of in your life? What
do you see that needs changing? How many times have you
tried before and failed? Let me encourage you to reach out
in desperation to God and find the strength and wisdom
you need to make a lasting change.
While it is important to at least have an attitude of
desperation in order to change, if that desperation does not
move into determination, you will not put forth the effort
needed to get the result you are looking for. The desperate
woman in Mark’s story does something uncommon. She
becomes determined!
Here is a woman with an issue of blood. In Jewish
culture, this condition would make her
unclean and,
as such, she would
be required to sit
on the edges of
her community.
When this woman
discovers that Jesus is
in town, she rushes to
him, but finds a huge
obstacle in her way. The town’s synagogue ruler, Jairus, was
in front of her in the line to see Jesus.
What’s the big deal? In their small town, Jairus would
have intimate knowledge of this woman’s unclean situation
and would have had every right and even an obligation to
have her removed from the scene. Moreover, Jesus himself
could have been offended by this woman because when
she touched him, He himself would become unclean. I
don’t think you and I can imagine this woman’s struggle.
She went against her own internal obstacles as a woman in
a patriarchal culture and as a defiled woman in a religious
culture, while simultaneously breaking through external
obstacles of facing ridicule and shame from the community.
Remarkably, this woman pushes past her fear and becomes
determined no matter how impervious the path seemed for
her to obtain the desired result.