You’re never more confident in what you know than at age 16. At least that's the median range for intellectual arrogance I've experienced. Somewhere around that age well-adjusted people start to sense they may not have all the facts all the time.

During my one year spent teaching high school Bible, I had students all over the mountain of intellectual arrogance. In my Sophomore homeroom, a few guys had planted their flag on the summit.

One morning a certain young man named Cliff was assigned the devotion. Yes, I know. Assigning devotions to unwanting high school boys ain’t the recipe for spiritual insight. But that’s the way it was done.

When I asked Cliff to come forward for the devotion, it was clear he hadn’t prepared a thing. I didn’t expect otherwise, but rules were rules. So he stepped to the front of the room.

Cliff ruffled through the pages of a Bible he stole from a friend and stopped suddenly in the New Testament. He slapped his finger on a verse and looked up with a sly smile. He cleared his throat and read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He slammed the Bible closed and began walking back to his seat. He had done his duty and didn’t want to say anymore.

That wasn’t going to work for me. If Cliff didn’t have anything to teach us, then I had something to teach him.

“Cliff, answer me one question,” I said, stopping him in his tracks. “Since you appear to believe the meaning of John 3:16 is self-evident, what is the significance of the word ‘so’ in Jesus’ expression ‘God so loved the world’?”

“If I only touch the edge of his prayer shawl, I will get well.”  That was the logic of a large number of Israelites who encountered Jesus.  According to Mark 6:56 and Matthew 14:36, “Wherever Jesus entered villages or cities or countryside, people laid the sick in the market places and implored him that they might just touch the fringe of his cloak. As many as touched it were being cured.”  It was a nationwide phenomenon.

Personally I would have taken a different approach.  I would have wanted a more memorable experience.  Maybe a secret potion or some holy water to pour on my head for seven days would be more impressive.  If I was going to be healed, I’d want a little more showmanship than the fringe of a Rabbi's prayer shawl.

One particular woman thought the edge of Jesus’ prayer shawl could stop a 12-year hemorrhage.  It was a bold (somewhat difficult to understand) belief.  She didn’t want him to touch her head, to say a prayer, or to make a magical elixir.  She just wanted to grab a corner of his outer garment. 

At first glance, this lady seems to have an ill-conceived belief in the power of prayer shawls.  I personally think they are a fashion nightmare and have never found one with the redeeming value of healing power.  But Matthew 9:20-22 records her exceptional story.

So you lost your job because you stood up to an abusive boss. You lost a friend because you questioned their participation in certain weekend activities. Or you’re embarrassed by your squealing car because you refuse to live on credit debt.

Embodying Jesus’ way isn’t easy. Compassion, justice and faithfulness require work. You get tired because you bring a meal to a new mom, house a family in need, and give a listening ear to a hurting friend late into the night. You’re crushed because the state sends your foster child back to a neglectful mom. Or you struggle financially because you refuse to make money off of uneducated consumers and underpaid workers.

On nights you can’t hold it all together, you rant. You stare. You question and cry “mercy!” Then a well-intentioned friend says: trust God and things will get better. Jesus promised to give you rest. What do you do with that?

Maybe you hit your friend in the face. Or maybe you hold yourself back and nod like that statement somehow helped you. Or maybe you feel worse because you don’t expect things to get restful so you feel like you’re failing to have faith.

Should you believe God will make everything better?