 Dooling: Tell Jesus the whole truth and you will leave here in peace By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Thursday, May 29, 2003
Dooling, executive director of Voices of Orthodox Women, was the speaker at the Seventh Annual Memorial Service to honor children lost to miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth and early infant death. The memorial service was sponsored by Quickenings, a Presbyterian group concerned with pregnancy loss and procreation. Dooling said she attended her first Quickening's memorial service at last year's General Assembly, and spoke on how that "room became a sanctuary and a holy place." She said that she didn't think of General Assembly as being a place where God would heal the inner feelings of guilt, "not only in others but in myself as well … that is what God does, he surprises us. He reminds us that he is always working among his people." Dooling said her Scriptural text, Mark 5:21-43, was simple and straightforward, but profound. Mark, she said, emphasizes the power of Jesus, but "he turns our definitions of power inside out." She said people tend to think of power as position, money or military force. "Mark teaches us that Jesus' power was displayed through his obedience to the Father to be a servant, a suffering servant at that. … Mark teaches us that confessing Jesus Christ as Lord will be a costly relationship." In Mark's story, an anonymous woman had suffered hemorrhages for 12 years. She went to many physicians and spent all of her money. Dooling said that "tells us one thing. She had money – she had the power of money … however, her money hadn't done her any good. … she was like the others, poor, sick and desperate." Dooling said the woman knew that if she made her way through the crowd and touched Jesus, she would be healed, and when she did touch him – the instant that happened – she knew she was well. Mark immediately turned his attention to Jesus, Dooling said. "Jesus stopped and turned in the crowd and said who touched my clothes, because Mark said Jesus knew power had gone through him." She said the woman had hoped to get her healing and quietly disappear, but "if she had done that, we wouldn't have known about her," and she would not have had a personal encounter with the One who would heal her soul as well as her body. Jesus wanted her to identify herself – to come forward and tell her story, Dooling said. "Her need was greater than physical suffering, she couldn't remain anonymous. The woman fell at Jesus' feet and she told him the whole truth and, after that, she went away with peace … Her healing was complete." "We are a small group today, when compared to meetings of the General Assembly," she said. "We pray for the variety of pieces of business coming before the General Assembly. We pray for commissioners and advisory delegates. We have also been praying for ourselves or the work we have come here to do. … We may take for granted that God is at work in the convention hall and that God may be working within you." By the world's standards, she said, "we all have financial resources and that gives us all a certain amount of power, but it is easy to fall into the trap of relying on our own power. … but in spite of your resources or your status, you come here because you have a need that the power of the world cannot fix. … You have been drawn away from the General Assembly to come to this place of worship. You are here to recognize the One that can meet your need." Dooling said that all people experience grief in some way or another, some of which is "so personal you try to keep it to yourself." Some may be living with guilt, she said. "It may be an old guilt, but still there, and it can rear its head when least expected. … Somehow, all of the knowledge of Scripture, of Jesus Christ, hasn't helped," she said, because "you haven't taken the time to fall at Jesus' feet and tell him the whole truth." Or maybe, she said, "you experience anger that God didn't give you a miracle and you begged him for it." Dooling said that in the Scripture reading, many people followed Jesus that day, but there were only two miracles. "Why?" she asked. "Only God can answer that. His is the power to give life or to take it away." Be honest with God about the anger, the shattering disappointment, she urged. "Tell him the whole truth," she said. "He has given us faith in the first place, nothing is hidden from him. He knows us better than we know ourselves, because he created us. He abides within us." "You may hear the voice of Jesus saying who touched me, because he wants to hear the whole truth from you. Take advantage of these quiet minutes … be willing to tell him the whole truth and you will leave here in peace." Later in the service, Christine Shaw, executive director of Quickenings, and board member Rev. Bob Davis presented the 2003 Fanny Crosby Award to Ed Baron of Promise Keepers for their ministry of reconciliation, especially for those men who have lost children to abortion. The Rev. Ben Willis invited those in attendance to sign a Book of Remembrance. He said it was a place to write the name of a child who had been lost, their date of birth and death, and a message to the child, or to Jesus. |
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