Ep 129 A Legacy of Seeing God in Our Dailies with Diana Stuhr

I first met Diana Stuhr on a missionary trip with Practical Missionary Training. It was love and laughing at first sight. Diana has served with World Vision, Central American Mission and has worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators for the last 34 years. Currently, semi-retired in Waxhaw, NC, Diana oversees the events for seniors and she was born for it! Always with a good word of encouragment and a ready laugh, Diana's legacy is evident to all: to be a woman known for loving Jesus, talking about Him as a matter of course in the "dailies of life." 

What a great reminder to pray to God to open our eyes to how He works in and around us. And to be ready to talk about it out loud to anyone who may be listening. 

You will love Diana! I sure do. Sign up for her weekly email here: Monday Memories: diana_stuhr@wycliffe.org

 

Diana writes a weekly email with many of her "parables" as well as some of her photography. Here's a sampling:

Occasionally,  I encounter someone spectacularly rude, astonishingly so. I encountered someone like that this week at the synagogue (Luke 13:10-17) Jesus was teaching and sitting just a few rows away from me was a bent over and crippled woman. I wondered how Jesus came to be at the podium (perhaps the synagogue leader had invited Him to speak), when suddenly He called out to the crippled woman. He invited her to come forward. You could have heard a pin drop in the seconds it took her to rise to her feet and the minutes it took her to shuffle forward. I was embarrassed for her. She reached Him and He simply said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 

There should have been laughter and clapping, but rudeness but a squelch to that straightaway as the synagogue leader rose up indignant and instead of speaking to Jesus who stirred his ire, he spoke to us. He scolded us as if we were the ones who caused the stir. He accused Jesus of breaking the law without speaking directly to Him. Rude, indeed. 

Stunned everyone was just trying to take it all in, when Jesus spoke directly back to the synagogue leaders. He called them hypocrites. In essence, He humiliated them. He had the last word, too, as far as I know. 

It just goes to show, you never know what might happen at church.  I left assured: 

• Jesus cares about those in bondage whatever form it takes and regardless of who it is. 
• Jesus has power over all bondages and with just a word He can bring healing. 
• Jesus invites, but waits for those He's invited to come. 
• Sometimes laws are meant to be "broken" because a higher law prevails (ie compassion and kindness).

I also left with some questions: 

• What constitutes work? 
• Why did this woman have to suffer for 18 years? 
• The woman came forward without knowing what Jesus would do. Could I have been brave enough to do what she did? 
• Shame is a powerful emotion. In essence the synagogue leader, while being rude to Jesus, was also shaming the woman. He was substituting the shame of her affliction with the shame of her healing, which had no basis in reality. How does one battle that kind of shame successfully? On the other hand, Jesus shamed the synagogue leaders, but their shame was based in reality. How does one battle that successfully? By repenting. 

Sign up for her weekly email here: Monday Memories: diana_stuhr@wycliffe.org