Skip to main content

Do You Want It?

            When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)

This verse is from the passage about the man at the Pool of Siloam, who had been paralyzed for more than three decades. The reason he was at the pool was the rumor that when an angel stirred the waters of the pool, if you immersed yourself,  you would be healed. He’d been waiting, but every time the water stirred, others got there ahead of him. He’d been waiting. How could Jesus ask him if he wanted to be healed? How uncompassionate! How inconsiderate! Any idiot would know that the man wanted to be healed. Except…

If he really wanted to be healed, wouldn’t he have positioned himself so close to the pool that when the angel stirred the waters, he could just tumble in? Wouldn’t he have arranged to have someone else help him – someone who also wanted to be healed, so they could go together? And while he might like the idea of being healed, after so much time he was used to being paralyzed. To be healed would mean freedom, but it would also mean responsibility. He was living on the charity of others, sitting at the pool day after day in hopes of healing instead of finding ways to contribute to society.   

It's likely that we are all the man at the pool – have been – will be. I could and should make a list of all the ways I’d like to be healed, fixed, or empowered. Like my project list, I should throw myself into what will heal, fix, or empower me. But… there’s no one around to help me, and for some reason, I can’t seem to get those who carry me to and from the pool to put me close enough so that I can just sort of fall in.

Let’s just draw on something that’s not embarrassing. I’d really like to have a beautiful and bountiful garden that would provide for me, my neighbors, people at a food pantry, and wildlife. To be honest, that would require more land that I have, and the establishment of a full-fledged agricultural farm. It’s bigger than I can handle. If I really wanted to do this, I would learn about soil, about the plants and their needs. There are many things I could, and should, do if I want to have a productive garden, but I can’t bring myself to do them. Oh, if only I had someone who would come along and do the work for me, so that all I am required to do is putter and enjoy! Do I want to do what’s necessary? Do I study soil and work to amend it? No. But neither am I willing to give up the dream, and so I sit by the pool, year after year.

The garden dream was chosen because it’s safe but replace it with any of the things you know you should give up, take up, or do, and the results are the same. Procrastination. We really need to learn to procrastinate procrastinating and take action, or Jesus may have to ask us if we really want what we claim we want.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more