Clutching the Hem
Sometimes it feels as if life is simply more than we can handle. As if our heart has been strained and pained, for so long, that it is no longer able to drive life through our veins. Often the pain and struggle has continued over such time extended that it is as if we have been drained of the blood that quickens our circulation, strengthens our bones, and enables us to simply breathe.
Weakened and hurting we struggle through each day, head and body bowed under the weight of hopelessness. Dragging our self along, our hands cling frantically to the ground below us in an effort to find something to hold onto – that we might pull ourselves forward for just another day.
We lift our faces in raw desperation searching for something that will allow us to breathe again with ease… something that will stop the painful flow. But we’ve been bleeding and shamefully stooped so many years that it seems as if relief will never be within our grasp.
It is during this most difficult time that we must summon the fortitude, and the courage, to break through the crowds of placating words – or ugly criticisms – and reach with fierce determination for Him. We must clutch the hem of His garment and we must gather strength. We must evoke life. We must draw power. And we must not let go.
We must refuse to allow our grip to be loosened or our fingers pried away until we have regained power… we can stand steady… our breathing is no longer labored… and the hemorrhaging in our wounded heart has ceased.
Clutch His hem as if your very soul-life depends upon it. For during the suffering times of loneliness and pain it is the only thing that will make us whole.
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Luke 8:40-49
[42b] …As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. [43] And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. [44] She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
[45] “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
[46] But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
[47] 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. [48] Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Losin' My Religion 