Through the Gap

John 16:5–15

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• "it is better for you that I go"
• "if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you"
• "he will guide you to all truth"
• "everything that the Father has is mine"

Applying the Word to My Life:
I can't imagine being the disciples in today's reading. They already thought they had lost Jesus once during the Passion only to have Him come back in the Resurrection. He had been talking about "going away" but that was in the distant future — things were really good now so why change them? But His words are serious and they can tell that something is about to change.

It would be hard to understand when He tells them "it is better for you that I go." How can things get better than having Jesus here? It seems like, from that point, any change would make things worse, not better. But this is where trust needs to come in. The fact that the disciples are living a reality better than they could have imagined doesn't mean it is better than what God has in store. God's ability to deliver good far outstrips our ability to imagine.

His departure creates the opening for the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to come down on them. The Spirit could have come at any point — but there is a reason it comes after Christ returns to the Father.

The whole point of Christianity is for us to conform our lives to Christ and become Christ to others. While Christ was with the disciples, they were always going to be limited to more of an intermediary role. Most wouldn't ask a follower to heal them or pray when they can go to Christ Himself. The Spirit will give them the gifts so that they can have Christ live within them instead of among them — and then pass that new way of life on to others.

It is easy to get stuck in "good enough" or "as good as I think it gets." For me, it was when I was working litigation. The money was good, the job was good and I was able to provide for my family. But I wasn't there for my family. Something had to change, and I took the opportunity to move to an in-house job with a company.

The problem was that I needed to start immediately and the kids still had a couple months of school left. It was too far to drive home every night. So I got an apartment and would leave on Monday morning and come back home on Friday night. The loss hit me as I was driving to work that first Monday. I wouldn't see my family the whole week and it was going to be that way for months. Every fiber in me wanted to turn back and return to what we had. But I was convinced that something better was on the other end. We stuck it out, there were difficulties on the other side of it too — but I was able to be home a lot more.

The thing I had to keep coming back to was simple: things were not going to change if I kept litigating. The grind and the demand on my time were always going to be what they were. The only way to the other side was through the gap.

The same for our disciples — they aren't going to change if Jesus stays. Peter will still be the timid and scared disciple, they will still hide from the authorities, they will still be looking at the safety of their old jobs and lives. The disciples cannot become who they need to become with things as they are. The grief is real and the departure is still the right thing. The other side is worth the cost of the middle — but you have to go through the middle to get there.

God loves us too much to settle for comfortable and easy. He will always push us towards better.

My Response for Today:
Today I will name one necessary change I have been avoiding.