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Dear Friends:
This is the second meditation in a series on the experience of Jesus with the woman at the well recorded in John 4.
He left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria (John 4:3-4).
A professional with an international reputation speaks to me of his betrayal by colleagues. Despite his publications, his stellar reputation for scholarship and skill, and decades of hard work, he is being subjected to the leadership of an insufferably arrogant colleague of lesser skill and reputation after a long battle.
He pours out his disappointment and distress to me as I pray silently for the words to comfort and guide him as he goes through his “Samaria.” When he winds down, I say, “You have a work to do and people who need your help. There is nothing I have to tell you except you need to grieve your loss and move on.”
“It does feel to me like someone has died,” he says.
“That is your dream fading away,” I say. “It is OK to mourn it and let it go. Otherwise it will drag you down and destroy you with bitterness. If you permit yourself to give your loss a funeral, you can put this behind you.
There is a new life for you beyond this. God loves you and has plans for you beyond the hurt and beyond what you’ve asked and thought up to now. But I don’t think you can get there without acknowledging and grieving what has happened and committing it back to God.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: A Word of Grace, Christianity, Devotional, Kent Hansen
