There is a story in the Bible that really hammered this home to me. I’ve been thinking and talking about it for a long time.
John
5
New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus
Heals a Lame Man
Afterward Jesus returned to
Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city,
near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,[a] with five
covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or
paralyzed—lay on the porches.[b] 5 One
of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When
Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put
me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there
ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand
up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed!
So.........
The guy has been laying there crippled for 38 years. Jesus
can heal him in a moment without any action on the man’s part. But instead he
asks him this question, “Do you want to get well? Given the mans long term illness, that’s an
incredible question to ask, isn’t it?
Of course after all those years of misery he would love to get immediately cured, right?
Well I guess since Jesus asked Him the question, maybe not.
Jesus responds like this; (if you do, then) “Stand up, pick up your mat,
and walk”.
It’s become very meaningful to me that He didn’t say. “OK, then
you are healed” (which He had the power to do).
Instead he instructed
him to use his free will to take action. God
would do His part if the man was willing to cooperate- to do what he could do.
Here is the questions that comes screaming out of the story
for me.
Do people who are ill from drinking or other crippling
defects in their lives really want to
get well? I know this for myself- I can get really comfortable with where I
am even if it’s not in a very good place. For some reason I at least temporarily resist doing what I need to in
order to get better. Humbly and embarrassing to admit, but true.
In many or most cases I know what needs to be done to get
better, to improve my life; I know the tools that are available to get me
on a path of healing. But I just don’t have the willingness to use them in all areas of my
life, all the time. Some of them, yes, some of the time yes. The ones that cause intense emotional pain, most likely sooner rather than later.
But others, I guess I’m just not feeling sick enough. God is
ready to help, whenever I’m willing to cooperate....
So when someone
(including myself) says, “ I’m sick, I’m hurting, I hate this about myself", I should follow with the question , “do you want to get well”? If the answer is truly yes, then
suggestions can be made and action will follow. I truly believe all the necessary steps will be revealed if we are seeking
God’s will and willing to work the program. Like
the saying goes, “ When the student is ready, the teachers will appear”.
Yes, after 25 years of self-induced torture, I was finally able to say and mean, "I want to get well." However, as you stated, even though I was willing to cooperate, that doesn't mean it's been so easy to do so. I can still be uncooperative at times, sometimes it's not even intentional, it's just a reflex. In my case, I have a long history of self sabotage, so I pay close attention to the slogan, "First thought wrong."
ReplyDeleteI think one of the reasons the lame man was healed was that he heard not a suggestion but a command: Not: it might help if you took initiative, but rather:"Stand up! Pick up your bed and walk!" It was a command that came from beyond himself, from a power he probably didn't know, but was nevertheless a loving, healing, authoritative power. And THAT POWER took control.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't just a renewed resolve to try harder to get into the pool. The solution wasn't just the religious, superstitious conventional wisdom of the day. It had nothing to do with what the conventional wisdom said, nothing to do with water. It was a new thing.
[Now don't get me wrong. I go to doctors when I'm sick. I take the medicine prescribed. But underneath my illnesses, physical, emotional and spiritual is a fear that I won't get well, or can't get well. There is something of the lame man's despair that lurks beneath the surface. It hinders my healing. I need a new attitude, a new perspective to be made whole.]
Somehow the lame man recognized the authority of the one who spoke to him. And somehow he responded. New mental pathways were formed, new muscular responses came into play. It wasn't magic but it was spiritual. It wasn't supernatural, but it was sacred. And the response? It wasn't a response to a faraway Almighty God, but to the close presence of Jesus in the here and now. That's what I need!
So I ask myself: How am I crippled? I have a list already in my head. I've been waiting a long time, too. What healings do I want? Do I really want them? Where is that Power in my life? What command is the Power giving me? Am I listening? Can I hear it? Will I hear it? Will I let it in?