The Hand She Stopped Putting Out

She prays with people. That is the plain description and she would not dress it up.

Somebody says something is going on and she says, can I pray with you now, and they say yes because almost everybody says yes, and she does it there, standing up, in about forty seconds, and then she lets them go.

Twenty years of that.

Here is what she noticed a fortnight ago, and it is very small.

She used to put a hand on their arm.

Not a production. Just a hand, above the elbow, while she prayed. She had done it since she started and she could not tell you where she got it from, and half the people who have ever asked her to pray would tell you about it if you asked them.

And a fortnight ago she was praying with a woman she has known for years and she noticed, while she was actually doing it, that her hands were folded in front of her.

The prayer was the same. It was a good prayer. The woman was helped.

But the hand did not go out, and she thought about it afterwards, and worked out that it has not gone out for a while, and that she could not say when it stopped.

Nothing happened. Nobody complained about being touched and nobody said anything at all. There is no incident.

She has told nobody, because saying it out loud sounds like nothing. I have stopped putting my hand on people's arms. You would sound peculiar.

If something small has dropped out of something you still do perfectly, come and sit down with a coffee. This is not going to become an inventory.

He does not break what is only bent

There is a description of the Messiah in Isaiah that Matthew later applies to Jesus directly, and it is one of the gentlest things in the whole Old Testament.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.Isaiah 42:3

Notice what both objects have in common. Neither of them is broken. A bruised reed is bent and still standing. A smoking wick is still alight, just barely. And both are exactly the sort of thing a busy person clears away because it is quicker than dealing with them.

And the sentence says He does not.

That is the temperature of the One who drew your attention to a hand that stopped going out, and it is worth knowing the temperature before you decide what the message was.

You were shown this gently, and you were shown it early, and both of those are on purpose. Isaiah 42:3 puts anything bent or barely alight into the hands of somebody who does not break it, and it is the Holy Spirit who carries a word at exactly that temperature, which means what came to you was one hand and not an accusation.

One thing, and stop

Now let me guard something, because I know exactly what a woman like you does next.

You go looking for what else has dropped out. You start asking whether twenty years has quietly hollowed, whether the prayers are as real as they were, whether the whole thing has become a technique.

Do not. That is where a gentleness turns into a project, and the project ends the same way every time: a long list, a heavy chest, and not one hand put back.

Look at what you were actually given. Not an assessment of your ministry. Not a review of twenty years. One specific small thing, and then quiet. That restraint is the fingerprint.

You are being dealt with kindly, and you are not under inspection. Romans 2:4 says it is the kindness of God that leads a person, and it is His Spirit who carries it at the temperature a person can receive, so nothing in that hall was an alarm going off.

And here is the ground it all stands on, which this site will not leave out.

You are being kept while you keep watch, and the noticing was never resting on how alert you are. Philippians 1:6 says the One who began a good work in you is carrying it through to completion, and it is the Holy Spirit who noticed a hand you had stopped noticing, because God is the one keeping you and you are not standing this watch alone.

Nothing is broken. Nobody has been prayed for badly and nobody in that hall is worse off. A hand that stopped going out can go out this morning, and it costs nothing, and nobody will ever say a word about it.