DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL?

Dec 30

KEY SCRIPTURES:

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. ~ Proverbs 19:3 (NIV)

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. ~ John 5:2-9 (NIV)

I have a friend who is always asking for help. I try to help her… I listen, I pray with her, I offer advice. But there is always SOME reason (excuse) why she can’t take my advice. Or anybody else’s for that matter. She asks others for help, but when they try to help her, she rattles off a list of excuses to them as well, and then is angry that she’s not getting the help she wants. She’s being offered the help she NEEDS, but it’s not the help she WANTS. And there’s always an excuse, (which is just a reason stuffed with a lie,) as to why she can’t do what is being suggested. Usually, there’s a frustrated, “You just don’t understand!” thrown over her shoulder as she storms off.

Of course, she’s right in that I’m not in her EXACT situation and I don’t have her EXACT pain, but I’ve been in similar, (and sometimes even WORSE) situations and/or pain, so I do know a *little* bit about it… and so do the others that are trying to help her.

Finally, I sat down with her and I said, “Listen… I know you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but I’m telling you this because I love you. You say you want help, but you don’t really want help. What you want is for your life to change without YOU having to make any changes in your life. You want others to “help” you by making their lives uncomfortable - so yours doesn’t have to be. You want to continue living like you’re living but wanting your situation to get better. That’s not going to happen. Expecting it to is the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. If you want your life to change, YOU are going to have to make some changes. Nobody is going to “help” you the way you want, and if you expect them to, you’re just going to continue to be miserable and disappointed and your anger and bitterness will grow. People are happy to really help you, but you have to be willing to do your part in the process.”

For a few minutes she just stared at me, clearly stunned. I could see her processing what I’d said and trying feverishly to come up with some response… but she knows me well enough to know I wasn’t going to accept any line she was going to try to feed me, so she finally slumped a little bit in her chair, sighed a deep sigh and said, “You’re right.” It looked like it was almost a relief for her to finally admit it.

The thing is, I think we’re ALL like this in at least some areas of our lives. We just want things to change - to be better, or at least EASIER! - without any more being required from us! But, that’s just not the way it works. *deep sigh*

When Jesus came to the man by the pool of Bethesda, Jesus knew this man had been there for a looooong time. 38 years! Can you imagine??! I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t just heal him… He asked him a question first, “Do you want to get well?” It’s also interesting that the man didn’t answer with an immediate and emphatic, “YES!” but instead told Jesus why he COULDN’T get well. Jesus simply tells him to pick up his mat, and walk … and the man is instantly healed. Now he’s going to have to do things differently. After 38 years he’s going to have to pick up his mat, and walk. He’s going to have to go places and do things he hasn’t had to before.

If we want things to change in our lives, then we’re going to have to do some things differently. (Maybe a LOT of things differently!) And, if we want things to change in the right direction, then we’re going to have to start listening to God for His directions.

Sometimes He tells us to pick up our mat and walk. Or start a new career. Or quit an old habit. Or just be still and know that He is God… and wait for His leading.

I hate waiting. *deep sigh*

But, I’ve learned that running ahead of Him is way too painful and messy and hard. Even when I listen to Him and follow Him it’s sometimes painful and messy and hard, (He said, “In this world (we) WILL have trouble,” and to “pick up (my) cross and follow Him…”) but it’s way easier WITH Him than without Him.

One of the excuses I’ve heard time and time again is, “I don’t hear God. He doesn’t talk to me.” Yes, He does. He speaks to each of us in different ways, but the whole reason He created us was to have a relationship with us, so He DOES communicate with us. More often than not, we’re just not listening.

Or we hear Him, but we don’t like what we hear… so we pretend we didn’t hear Him.

Or we don’t hear Him because we CAN’T hear Him because we’re too busy COMPLAINING to Him instead of LISTENING to Him. (This is sooooo me!!)

When we’re focused on ourselves and our pain, then we can’t really hear anything else. I think this is why He tells us to, “Be still and know that I am God.” We absolutely HAVE to get still and get silent before we can hear Him.