The Need of Lack to Understand Gain?

"But now I am going away to the one who has sent me...there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me. All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me. In just a little while I will be gone, and you won't see me anymore...Truly you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy when you see me again. It will be like a woman experiencing the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives place to joy because she has brought a new person into the world. You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. At that time, you won't need to ask me for anything. The truth is, you can go directly to the Father and ask him, and he will grant your request because you use my name. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy..." John 16: 5, 12-16, 20-24

I encourage all to read this entire chapter, as it fills in the gaps I didn't include here. I'm struck by many different things in this passage...

The disciples didn't seem to fully realize what they had in Jesus until He told them he was going to leave. I find myself thinking about how we are as humans and how we are exactly the same as the disciples today. We don't realize the fullness of something or someone until we have a lack of him/her/it or it is gone. Our eyes and hearts are blinded when we have things or people in our midst in the search for what is better. We forget so much to look at what we have in the present in our search for something better.

I find it interesting that over and over again, Jesus had to tell his disciples he was leaving but in that, reassure them that He was coming back and it would be better. They wanted the comfort and security of Jesus around. Jesus knew it was far better for them if He left them because they would learn to grow and receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus leaving opened up the path between mankind and the Father; without His leaving and fulfilling His mission, this would not be true.

Since reading this passage, I've been asking the question of why does one have to leave in order for those who know that person to realize what they have in him/her? Why do we have to have such lacks in order to know what we have? I wish we could open our eyes in the moments we live and experience and fully embrace what they possess...that in each moment, instead of looking for something different and better, realizing what we have and pursuing the development of that. We fail utterly at that, and it must go back to the root of mankind. The disciples struggled with it just as we do.

I look at how the disciples had to lose Jesus in order to find Him again and find Him more abundantly so, and I think perhaps this is His remedy for our flesh, His divine intervention in showing us what we truly have. We have to weep and mourn at what we have personally lost in order to gain something greater. Through the grace of Jesus, that weeping turns to joy...

We also have the power of Jesus on our side, His redemption that opened the path from us to the Father. I find myself thinking about what do I truly ask for from the Father in the name of Jesus. I realize that with some things for some reason, I have not prayed for them in specifics. Perhaps I felt it "taboo" or something to pray for these things specifically, but I must possess the confidence in my Father in Heaven that He hears whatever it is I ask for, and that I can ask for anything in His name. Anything less than that would not be exercising the gift of my salvation and His saving grace. So often I do not have because I do not ask. We are able to approach the throne in confidence that He hears us...I need to remember that not just in the things that are easier to ask for, but in all things.

So with that tonight, I find myself asking that we as believers would open our eyes to what we have in our lives at the present time. Let us be thankful for them. Let us not be satisified with mediocricy or stagnation in them, but always pursue them to make them better. Jesus is on our side. Let us go to Him, and go to the Father through Him, never hesistating to ask.