Belonging - Day 16
John 5:5 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?”
What an obvious question Jesus was asking this man. Would you like to get well? Of course, this man would like to get well; who wouldn’t? What comes along with getting well? We know that this man would be brought back into the life of the Temple, his community, and even his career. He would be made whole and, as such, could participate in all aspects of life that he had been missing.
Can you imagine being afflicted for 38 years of something, and someone comes up and asks if you would finally like to be rid of the burden of being broken? How amazing would that be? And how incredulous would it be? Chances are you would have a really hard time believing that you were even having this conversation with someone. At this point, you are a fixture in this pool, and everyone knows that you have little chance of getting into the pool before anyone else.
Hearing that this man might be interested in healing you would be a pretty big and exciting thing to process.
But perhaps we should linger in the question for a little while longer. And maybe we should personalize it a bit more. What if Jesus was asking you if you wanted to get well. Now, I don’t know what you need to be healed from, but there is probably something. We all have issues that we have to deal with. Some are physical, some are emotional, some are spiritual, and some are combinations of all of these things. And I think that most of us want to get better from what ails us. However, are we willing to do the work that helps heal us?
Some of that work is leaning into the promises of God and trusting in the spiritual disciplines to lead us to a greater understanding and experience of God in our lives.
I actually think that God is asking us this question every single day of our lives. Do we want to be well, do we want to get better? Are we willing to partner with God in this healing? Are we willing to partner with those who God places in our way to help us heal?
If you are hoping to be healed, know that God is asking you if you want to be well, and he is willing to go on that journey of healing with you.
What an obvious question Jesus was asking this man. Would you like to get well? Of course, this man would like to get well; who wouldn’t? What comes along with getting well? We know that this man would be brought back into the life of the Temple, his community, and even his career. He would be made whole and, as such, could participate in all aspects of life that he had been missing.
Can you imagine being afflicted for 38 years of something, and someone comes up and asks if you would finally like to be rid of the burden of being broken? How amazing would that be? And how incredulous would it be? Chances are you would have a really hard time believing that you were even having this conversation with someone. At this point, you are a fixture in this pool, and everyone knows that you have little chance of getting into the pool before anyone else.
Hearing that this man might be interested in healing you would be a pretty big and exciting thing to process.
But perhaps we should linger in the question for a little while longer. And maybe we should personalize it a bit more. What if Jesus was asking you if you wanted to get well. Now, I don’t know what you need to be healed from, but there is probably something. We all have issues that we have to deal with. Some are physical, some are emotional, some are spiritual, and some are combinations of all of these things. And I think that most of us want to get better from what ails us. However, are we willing to do the work that helps heal us?
Some of that work is leaning into the promises of God and trusting in the spiritual disciplines to lead us to a greater understanding and experience of God in our lives.
I actually think that God is asking us this question every single day of our lives. Do we want to be well, do we want to get better? Are we willing to partner with God in this healing? Are we willing to partner with those who God places in our way to help us heal?
If you are hoping to be healed, know that God is asking you if you want to be well, and he is willing to go on that journey of healing with you.
- What do you think you could partner with God on to help you heal?
- Are you open to therapy? What would stop you from going?
- How can the community of God help you heal?
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