Oct282025
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A Reason to Need Him

I did not see that coming. I thought Jesus would have picked the Pharisee. Pharisees obey the commandments. They will not rip off your grandmother as a tax collector would. So why the Pharisee over the tax collector? The Pharisee did not give God a reason to need Him. The tax collector did.

Remember when the shepherd left the ninety-nine to go after the lost sheep? Why? It is dangerous for a sheep to wander in the wilderness alone. They have no protection. They do not have wings to fly away. They do not have claws to climb trees, nor do they run very fast. The only source of protection they have is the shepherd. Imagine the sheep surrounded by sharp teeth, but the shepherd arrives with his staff and lifts the sheep on his shoulders. I can picture the sheep smiling back at the enemies. It’s a great story. God loves when we need Him.

After three years of remodeling St. Clement, I decided I needed a life and take a day off once in a while to fly fish. I was really terrible at it. I never caught a fish. I got a book on flyfishing in the library, but I caught nothing. I watched instructional videos, but still nothing.  I finally took a course on fly fishing for beginners. All my classmates told the instructor how great they were, how many fish they caught, and how big the fish were. At the end of the course, I went to the instructor and told him I had never caught a fish on a fly rod. He answered, “We will have to remedy that.” When we got together, he told me all his secrets: “Don’t tell anyone about this place, don’t tell anyone about this fly.” At the end of the day, I thanked him. He told me, “I had more fun watching you catch your first fish on a fly rod then I had spending years on the water.” The moral of the story is this. Do not go to the expert and tell him how great you are. Give the expert a reason to help you.

I am sure that all of us can come up with a reason to need God. We may not want to talk about it. We may be embarrassed about it. But it is the superglue of our relationship with God. Give God a reason to need Him. 

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