Reach AND Touch

In our taekwondo class on Thursday night, we practiced our board breaks.  I love board breaking!  I use a brown re-breakable board which is the equivalent to a wooden board 1.75 inches thick.  I just recently moved up to this board from a blue board (1.25 inches thick) because Jadyn had taken over my blue one!  I never had a problem with my brown board...until Thursday night.


First, we were practicing our palm heel strikes.  This was the strike I used the first time I ever broke my brown board and I did it with relative ease that time.  However, something happened to me Thursday night.  My instructor, Mr. Johnson, was holding the board.  I set in my front stance, lined up on target, chambered, struck, but the board didn't break.  Mr. Johnson said, "You pulled your punch.  Remember, follow all the way through the board."  I got set, chambered, struck through the board, and it broke.


Next was the hammer fist.  Again, this is a strike with which I have broken my brown board in the past.  However, again when I struck it didn't break.  Mr. Johnson said, "You're pulling your punches today.  You never do that.  What's up?"  I didn't know, but I set in my front stance, chambered, struck through the board, and it broke.


When I was driving home and even after I arrived home, I pondered Mr. Johnson's question.  Why was I pulling my punches?  I started cooking supper, thinking about the question, and when I took something out of the oven, my arm hurt and I knew the answer: I was pulling my punches because I have been having some tendinitis in my right elbow and I was afraid it was going to hurt.  In a sense, I was willing to reach out toward the board, but I was hesitant to touch it.


I realized that we Christians are like that to a great extent.  We hear people talking about reaching people, but do we hear people talk about actually touching them?  Not much.  I can think of a number of reasons why, some prudent, some just plain ol' chicken or judgmental.  


For me, Julie the Psychologist, the prudent reasons are rather easy to understand.  These reasons almost always involve personal boundaries.  I have to remain aware to not allow any codependent issues to cloud my judgment.  God has told us to be good stewards with what He has given us, including our selves, so there are times when we can get over-involved for selfish reasons, doing something for someone expecting to get something in return.  At those times, it would be prudent not to get involved, leaving that situation for someone who is better equipped to address it.  A good example is trying to be a therapist for a friend or family member.  NOT GOOD!  Sharing one another's burdens in an intimate friendship that is direct, open, honest and that has clear boundaries is a priceless gift.  Swooping in to rescue someone expecting them to rescue you in return is not intimacy; rather, it is games, indirect ways of getting your own needs met.  This is false intimacy because it is not direct, open, and honest.


What about the other "plain ol' chicken or judgmental" reasons for not touching someone?  Are they too sick?  Too different? Too odd?  Too bad?  Too rich?  Too poor?  Too...what?


"While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.  When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged Him, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.' Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, 'I am willing," He said.  'Be clean!'  And immediately the leprosy left him" (Luke 5:12-13).  Leprosy is a highly contagious disease that leads to great physical and emotional suffering before it releases you by allowing you  to die.  Jesus not only reached out but was willing to touch the leprosy stricken man.  Yes, Jesus had the power to heal the man.  And, yes, God expects us to be good stewards with the health He has given us and not go around being stupid.  However, He does expect us to do what we can when we can.  In His parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus very poignantly told how the religious priest and scholar passed by the victim of a robbery as if he were not there.  They didn't even bother with the pretense of reaching, much less touching.  However, the Samaritan stopped, bandaged the man's wounds, placed him on his donkey, took him to an inn, and paid for his care.  He touched the man.  Jesus told them, "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10: 37).  Go and have mercy and exercise compassion on people, especially if they are different.


Not only do we need to touch others, reaching out to God but not touching Him, really allowing ourselves to feel His touch,  also causes us to miss out on so much.  We may reach toward God with religious traditions, but touching God is something else entirely.  Beginning in the Old Testament, God made it very clear that religion alone is worthless.  "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.  Even though you bring me burn offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.  Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.  Away with the noise of your songs!  I will not listen to the music of your harps.  But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" (Amos 5: 21-24).  The Israelites had done what so many of us, myself included, often do.  We worship our own idols and go to church out of habit.  But it doesn't stop there!  At church, we go through the motions out of habit, out of tradition.


In both Matthew and Luke, Jesus tells the religious teachers a thing our two about their traditions, after the religious leaders judged the disciples for eating without washing their hands in the traditional, ceremonial way.  Jesus said to them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: 'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are from from Me.  They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men'" (Luke 7: 6-7; see also Matthew 15: 7-9).  So what does touching God mean?


Jesus was invited to dinner by one of the Pharisees.  "When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet, she began to wet His feet with her tears.  Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them" (Luke 7:37-38).  She did not care that she was not welcome.  She did not care that she had not been invited.  Traditions be damned!  He focus was on one thing and one thing only: Touching Jesus, truly worshiping at His feet.  "Then Jesus said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven...Your faith has saved you; go in peace'" (Luke 7: 48, 50b).  The Pharisees who reached out to Jesus to invite Him to dinner had an ulterior motive--to judge Him.  The woman reached out and touched Jesus from a pure motive, to be as close to her Redeemer as she could possibly be.


"As Jesus was on His way (to heal the daughter of Jairus), the crowds almost crushed Him.  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.  She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.  'Who touched Me?' Jesus asked.  When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You.' But Jesus said, "Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me.' Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet.  In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed, Then He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace'" (Luke 8: 42b-48).


This is another example of a woman who did not care about tradition, for religious rules had kept her from worshiping at the temple as long as she was bleeding.  She just wanted to get to Jesus, just to touch the hem of His robe.  But hers was no ordinary touch.  Hers was not the jostle and press of curiosity like the rest of the throng.  Hers was the touch of faith.  Her touch was different, and Jesus recognized it immediately.  


Oh how I long for my reaching and touching God to be real, genuine,authentic, and out of faith, and not just out of duty, habit, crisis, or curiosity!

If I could just touch Him

I know He'd make me whole.

If I could just touch Him

He could save my soul.

The hem of His garment is all I need.

If I could just touch Him

I'd be free indeed.

If I could just touch them

I know I'd make them whole.

If I could just touch them

I could save their souls

The blood from My cross is all they need.

If I could just touch them --

If they would just ask Me --

If I could just touch them

They'd be free indeed!

(jph)