The Thur Collective

A gate called Beautiful. The man was anything but. He couldn’t walk on his feet but had to be dragged on his knees. He passed his days among the contingent of real and pretend beggars who coveted the coins of the worshippers entering Solomon’s court. And these guys were among them--Pete and John. The needy man saw them and begged for money. They had none to give, yet they stopped . I spent a very significant fraction of my time pondering on this. “Why did they stop?!” I asked. Let’s Progress and see. Peter and his buddy John looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us!’ They locked their eyes on his with such compassion that “he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them”. Pete and John issued no embarrassed glance, irritated shrug, or cynical dismissal but an honest look. It is hard to look suffering in the face. Wouldn’t we rather turn away? Stare in a different direction? Fix our gaze on fairer objects? We give ourselves the excuse that ‘we C

And the bible says, “…at the fourth watch” (according to the Romans, it’s the time spanning from 3am – 6am) of the night, which is the darkest time. They say “darkest before dawn”-that’s the fourth watch. In the darkest period , “…he looked down and he saw them, he saw his disciples rowing against the wind”. It actually says “a strong wind was blowing - boisterous.” Stay with me… And Jesus came walking on water... (How cool is that!) *wind blowing* *his hair flustering in the wind, his clothes as well* Try to picture this scene. And don’t forget, it was in “the darkest time” Progress is hard without Jesus , it’s like 3 steps forward and 2 steps backward, it’s SLOW. If you don’t have Jesus on your boat. And the bible says “and the disciples looked and they saw him”, whoa what’s that??! IT’S A GHOST! They said. And Jesus’ answer was, in the Greek “I AM”. THAT’S the name of God. “Don’t be afraid, I AM”. And straight away Peter (who else?) said Lord, if it’s you, “BID ME