on the way

This week as I sit in a coffee shop in rainy Seattle, I keep having these few words running through my head. "Come let us go to the other side." We all know that Jesus spent time with the prostitutes, tax collectors, cheats, lepers, but now Jesus was taking it to a whole new level. The other side is the pagan area called the Decapolis or the land of the Gerasenes. This is a place that every good Jew avoided for a lot of reasons. This was their Ninevah! On the way to mission in this pagan place, they face the mother of all storms. And what comes out - FEAR.

This week as I am being challenged to go to the other side. My fears have become front and center. Fear of rejection. Fear of change. Fear of the costs. As we take steps toward mission toward people God truly loves (interestingly enough as Ron Ruchruff said today that Jesus loved the demoniac enough to destroy the economy of the decapolis by killing the pigs in order to deliver and heal him) the evil one wants to put fears front and center. Jesus' answer shouldn't surprise us. It is radical faith.