Insight is a monthly contribution on remarkable topics dedicated for thoughts, reflection and prayers. Please feel free to contribute to this page what you would like to share with others.

Are you struggling with something that is physically intriguing or spiritually contagious? When you know where and how you stand in this question you are concealing and calling it personal, if you ask the question, I promise you, the answer will benefit you and those who will grasp the truth. This will also affect the way you understand other questions already asked either objectively or subjectively.

I am aware that there are times when all of us wonder why God does, or allows, certain things to happen to us, these issues may be concerning your personal life, family relations, pain, fear, work or something you call private. Is God still speaking today? Indeed, God invites us to bring such questions to him, but also to listen as well as speak.

Let's face it: we don't always find God's ways easy to understand. Why he does certain things, but doesn't do other things, is often hard to grasp. However, this has sometimes led people to question his ways, or even to doubt his existence.

God is big enough to cope with these sorts of doubts and questions, however; the challenge to us is, are we big enough to listen to his answers?

In Matthew 15:28 Jesus said, Woman, great is your faith!

When after twenty years of campaigning, the House of Commons voted for the abolition of slave trade in Britain, William Wilberforce bowed his head and wept. The fight had been long and hard. Wilberforce's passionate belief as a Christian that no person should own another person, had led him on a long and difficult path that involved deceit and trickery, vitriolic personal attacks, physical assault and death threats. It had involved uncovering the sheer horror and disregard for human life on board the slave ships. It had involved presenting this information time after time to people who did not want to admit that there was a problem. It had involved many failures. However, at four o'clock in the morning on 23rd February 1807, his years of hard work paid off and his dream came true. It was a wonderful moment that the voice from the Cockpit of freedom was heard, understood and voted for by the House Commons as the result of a bitter and difficult fight.

In Matthew 15:21-28 we read the account of another great moment of healing released, and freedom received, and also after another bitter and difficult fight. The voice from the Cockpit of the commander-in-chief of life, Jesus Christ declared, Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.

Up until Jesus meets the Canaanite woman, nearly all of his work has been with the Jewish people, and within the borders of Israel. Apart from a couple of exceptions, Jesus seems rather exclusive. When he sends out his disciples to teach and heal, he explicitly tells them they are to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That aside, within the house of Israel Jesus is generously inclusive. Those normally on the edges of society, the poor, the sick, the disreputable, flock to his radical words and healing touch.

Everywhere he goes the mute speak, the lame walk, and the blind see. Just a chapter before Jesus meets the Canaanite woman, this feast for the poor and disregarded is celebrated both symbolically and materially in the feeding of the five thousand.

Matthew informs us suddenly, and inexplicably, Jesus leaves his own country and heads north to the region of Tire and Sidon. We are given no reason why he does this and many believers agrees that this was a curious break with his pattern of ministry so far.

It is here, in Gentile country, that an irritating but persistent Canaanite woman, who seeks help for her sick daughter, confronts Jesus. Shockingly, Jesus generosity seems to fail him. He tells her that he is called only to the lost sheep of Israel, and, even worse, appears to call her a dog. This was a grave insult to this woman.

I find it very harsh to compare a person with an animal. I had this experience when my first Christian name (Alfonse) was compared with a common dog found in Italy. People over the centuries have tried to tone this down, but there is no getting away from the severity of Jesus' words. What is remarkable about this woman is that she is undaunted, and battles on, declaring that even a dog can eat the crumbs from under its master's table. Does Jesus remember then all the basketfuls of crumbs that were left when he fed the five thousand? The woman's courageous and desperate answer seems to have changed his mind. He marvels at her faith and heals her daughter (Matthew 15:28). However, not only that, his engagement with this woman marks a distinct change in the direction of his ministry. When he heads home, Jesus goes through Gentile territory, and what he did in Israel, he now does openly and without question for all those who come to him from these lands. This glorious voice from the cockpit from the commander-in-chief of life is again celebrated by another symbolic and miraculous feast endorsed by the feeding of the four thousand on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Praise the Lord. Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman marks the moment when the Gospel opened to those beyond the boundaries of its beginning. This moment in time reminds us of what would have surely have made William Wilberforce weep. It also models something of our own relationship with God, particularly when, like Jesus and the Canaanite woman, we are at the beginning of a new direction in life. The thing that strikes me here is this, this is not an easy moment of experience. It is not something that many believers can put their fingers on and say it's done! The Jesus whom the woman tussles with is not 'meek and mild', however, he is a challenging and provocative man who pushes the woman to reveal the depth of her faith.

Many would have been offended. The voice from the Cockpit from the commander-in-chief is the voice of love, challenge and change.

Have you ever been offended by a sermon of any sort? Have you walked away from any church service because you thought the preacher insulted your conscience? Many would have walked away from this encounter of this woman with Jesus.

However, new beginnings, it seems, are often the result of a struggle. We don't like sermons that raise questions about our private lives, money, sex, food, smoking or drugs etc. Jesus' lifestyle, teaching and ministry challenges the things we have taken for granted, puts new ideas in our heads and opens up new directions. Is this your moment for change? Grab it and take the challenge. This is your opportunity.

Modicum