Experience

On Sunday, Pastor Chad Melton opened with Auggie Pullman from the film Wonder, a ten-year-old born with Treacher Collins syndrome who wore a toy astronaut helmet everywhere, because inside it nobody's face changed when they looked at him. His father finally took it, and told him he missed his face. Pastor Chad said most of us wear one too, and named a long list: the competence helmet, the fixer, "I'm fine," busyness, the phone, the Bible answer. He admitted his own, including bragging early in ministry about memorized verses until a mentor mocked him over lunch. The helmet works, he said, and that is the problem, because it lets us choose being loved at a distance over being known. The Samaritan woman's helmet was a time of day. She came to the well at noon, alone. In John 4:15 she asks for the water and not the conversation. Pastor Chad said you cannot experience grace at arm's length: understanding it you can do from a distance, experiencing it you cannot. Jesus finished her half-true sentence without rebuke, and she left her water jar behind. She was known and she was loved, and for the first time those two were not in competition.

Look up Psalm 139:1-6, Hebrews 4:13-16, Romans 5:8, and James 5:16. David says he is searched and known before a word is on his tongue; Hebrews says all things are open before the eyes of the One we must answer to, and then in the same breath invites us to draw near with confidence; Romans says God demonstrated His love while we were still sinners, so the knowing came first; and James moves it into the room, telling us to confess to one another and pray for one another. How do these passages together shape what you believe God already sees when He looks at you, and what would it look like this week to let one person know something you have kept behind a helmet?

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