Do You Really?

"Do you want to get well?" That sound ridiculous, doesn't it? Jesus -- who in my estimation was never ridiculous -- asked that exact question of a crippled man. In John 5:1-15, Jesus encountered this man as he lay begging by the pool at the Sheep Gate. Jesus knew he had been ill for a long time, but he asked him that pointed question before he healed him. What's up with that?

Actually, it's a recognition of human nature. Instead of "Yes, please!" the man replied to Jesus' question with an excuse about why he was still there, perhaps because he had not other thought than begging in that spot the rest of his life. You and I, today, tend to fall into a rhythm in life that suits our circumstances, but often it's not just a rhythm, but a rut that is deep enough we can't see what is outside its walls. We've even adapted our freedom in Christ to what we think are the limits of the rut, similar to the trouble the early church had in accepting Gentiles. Would we rather stay there, or do we really want to get well?

I see this problem every day, in myself and others. We like to think in theoretical concepts, in grand over-arching theological truths, but we don't like to think in terms of personal application, because getting more personal would mean change, and change is sooooo uncomfortable! Yet, a life of change is exactly what Jesus calls us to: "And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image" (2 Cor 3:18). Our own comfort with the status quo is a stumbling block against what the Lord wants changed in us. First we have to admit that the Lord may still have work to do in us, right?

Change (ooh, there's that word again!) means opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit's prompting to see our weaknesses and needs, so the Master Potter can freely re-shape us. Change means asking the Lord "In what ways does this verse I just read, apply to my own thinking and speech? In what ways do I need to become a changed person?" Those questions are a teeny bit scary! What if God did ask me or you to change?

We can begin to find out what he wants, if we sit ourselves down before the Lord in new spiritual rhythms that will help us hear what he is telling us.  Those new rhythms will also help us find the way to make the changes he points us to, when we've heard from him. Really, it's not scary, but freeing, to find those "unforced rhythms of grace" (Mat. 11:28-30, The Message). I've found a lot of freedom in admitting my weaknesses and letting the Lord move me into a better path. You can find that freedom too, I am sure!

If you really want to. Do you?