07.13.2017
For two times per week over the past three weeks, our SMI small groups have been tasked with the seemingly impossible mission of discussing and learning from Romans 8-16. For me, this time has become a time of learning more about God’s power and plan for my life while also learning from and encouraging four other incredible sisters in Christ in their journeys.
Growing up in the church, it seems like I’ve heard these passages from Romans many times over. One of my prayers at the beginning of SMI was for God to turn my head knowledge to heart knowledge, that the Bible verses I’ve heard my whole life would penetrate deep into my heart and cause me to call on Jesus’s name even more. God answered these prayers in a very powerful way during the second half of SMI by leading our small group through Romans and two encounters with drug overdoses.
About a week and a half ago, a fellow student was sitting up on the roof when he saw a man fall over on the sidewalk. A few of us rushed out to help him, narcan in hand, but were able wake him up without using it. The ambulance came, lights shining bright through the darkness of the night. The man, continually saying sorry, walked towards the ambulance with the promise of shelter and food for the night if he got inside. The man paused right by the door, thinking of getting into the ambulance and safety and shelter it provided, but instead turned away, ashamed of the place he was in and the brokenness in his life. We stood helpless as he walked away, head hung low, back into the dark as rain began to fall.
A similar situation occurred just a few days ago when, as Jason described in a previous post, a few of us came across a man sitting against Bethel Temple. Again, the ambulance was called, the man got inside but refused to go anywhere to get help. We again watched a man walk away, head hung low out of embarrassment, so consumed in his addiction, unable to see the hope what seemed to be so clearly in front of him.
But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.” Romans 10:21
How often in my own life, especially during these last four years of college, have I seen the “ambulance door” of God’s arms open wide to me but instead I’ve run away in my nakedness and shame, blinded by my sin to see God’s light shining into the darkness of my heart? Or how often have I experienced God in a powerful way but then “left the ambulance” thinking I could do life on my own, walking away from God’s arms? I am so thankful that Paul doesn’t stop writing in Romans 10 but instead goes on to Chapter 11.
I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not!…No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is — free and undeserved. Romans 11:1-2, 6
-Elise Nothacker