Sometimes life hurts. Sometimes you’ve struggled, and stumbled, until it even hurts to hope. Perhaps you’ve faced a spiritual crisis of disappointment, doubt, or a feeling of distance from God due to unanswered prayers and painful circumstances. But what does it mean to encounter Christ in those times? What does he say to us when we have nothing left to say? How do we see him when pain has silenced our prayers and blinded our souls? In Reaching for Wonder , Marlo Schalesky explores fifteen of the New Testament’s one-time encounters with Christ to illuminate the surprising character of a God who transforms our pain into wonder. Because sometimes life isn’t at all as we want it to be... Because we lose the wonder in the hardships of life ... Because encountering Christ changes everything... Like those who have gone before, following God’s call isn’t about easy faith, a life of effortlessness, or every prayer answered when and how we want. Instead, it’s about encountering God so deeply, so significantly, that everything about your circumstances, about your life, about you, changes because of God. In these New Testament stories you’ll find guidance to a deeper understanding of God’s plan for you, a more vibrant faith, and a fuller trust in God. Plus you’ll find hope in knowing that your life may not be as you had envisioned it, but is one in which God is doing a mighty work. Marlo Schalesky is an award-winning author of ten books, including Waiting for Wonder: Learning to Live on God's Timeline and a companion leader guide, Wrestling with Wonder: A Transformational Journey Through the Life of Mary . A regular speaker and columnist, she has also published nearly 1,000 articles in various Christian magazines, including Focus on the Family, Today’s Christian Woman, In Touch , and Marriage Partnership . Marlo lives with her husband, six young children, nine horses, two dogs, five cats, two parakeets, ten rabbits, two chinchillas, three hamsters, and a bunch of fish in a log home in Salinas, California. Find out more at VividGod.com. Reaching for Wonder Encountering Christ When Life Hurts By Marlo Schalesky Abingdon Press Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5018-5778-2 Contents Introduction, 1. Reaching Through Doubt: If You Are Willing, 2. Reaching Through Shame: You've Had Five Husbands, 3. Reaching Through Helplessness: Lowered Through a Roof, 4. Reaching Through Loss: A Widow's Dead Son, 5. Reaching Through the Voices Within: We Are Legion, 6. Reaching Through Desperation: The End of His Cloak, 7. Reaching Through Despair: A Dead Daughter, 8. Reaching Through Excuses: Do You Want to Be Well?, 9. Reaching Through Scorn: Dogs and a Syrophoenician Mother, 10. Reaching Through Isolation: Ephphatha!, 11. Reaching Through Failure: A Demon-Possessed Son, 12. Reaching Through Guilt: The First Stone, 13. Reaching Through Darkness: I Want to See, 14. Reaching for Wonder: Hearts on Fire, Note to the Reader, Acknowledgments, Notes, CHAPTER 1 Reaching Through Doubt If You Are Willing If. A tiny word. And yet it holds the world in its hands. If you want. If you are willing. You can make me clean. If ... that single word echoes in my soul, and I know we must start the journey here at If. Not if you can. Not if you have the power. Not even if I do it all right. If you are willing. Lord, are you willing to make me whole? I look at the question spoken by this man with a skin disease, a disease that ostracized him from his community, that made him an outcast. I gaze at it long and hard and find there a mirror to my own doubts, my own fears. I know God has the strength. I know he can do anything. But is he willing? Does he want to? That's the question that steals my breath, scratches at my faith. So with trembling I begin this journey of encounter. I whisper, "Are you willing, Jesus, to heal me too? Even me, even now. Is your love enough?" Is it enough to conquer my "If"? And the leper's story calls out to me, beckons me closer, whispers of a hope in the storm of doubts, of despair, of disappointments. I take one step toward the leper. I take a step toward his fear. In his healing, can I find my own? Will I see that the question is not so much if Christ is willing, but if I am ...? I imagine it happened something like this: A Leper Tells His Story The crowd moves like the Red Sea moved before my ancestors. Great walls of people pressed against each other to avoid touching me, to prevent even the slightest brush against my flesh. They create a path as dry as the ground in my soul. A path that ought to lead to hope. But I am afraid to hope. I remember all the promises given to my people after their flight from slavery. I remember that our God is redeemer, rescuer, savior. He is to be my strength and my song. I know all that. But it's hard to believe it. So difficult to believe the promises could be for me. I am an outcast. I am untouch