A Friend Who Uses Me (in a Good Way)

Monday, January 29, 2018 Week IV in Ordinary Time

2Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13; Psalm 3; Mark 5:1-20

The man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But Jesus would not permit him. Mark 5:18

Jesus wasn’t rejecting the man he delivered. He didn’t let him travel with him because he had work for him to do. “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.”

He made the man an apostle, “one sent,” although he knew almost nothing about Jesus. All Jesus wanted him to do was share his experience. At the time, it was all he could do.

Really, it’s all any of us do. We share our experience of God, great or small, long or short. That is our service to God and neighbor. It is how we show our love.

Jesus shows his love in calling us to do it.

There is no one whose ministry Jesus doesn’t value, or refuses to make use of. If we have any experience of him at all, he sends us out in his name to share it.

And works with us, in us, and through us.

The evangelicals know this better than Catholics do. As soon as someone is “saved,” they have him “give his testimony.” And keep giving it. The more people experience Jesus using them, the more they appreciate him.

Friendship is interaction. Interact with Jesus and he will use you to do great things.

ACTION: Share your experience of Jesus with someone. The results may surprise you.

PRAYER: “Lord, be with me. Let me be with you.”