Do You Actually Want Things to Be Different?
[Archeologists have excavated the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where this incident takes place; I’ve been there.]
I’m convinced that many people would rather stay in the pain they know than risk changing the way things are in their lives. Chances are you know someone like this: constant complaint, but never any meaningful change.
I love how Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter when he sees the crippled beggar laying with the others by the Pool of Bethesday in Jerusalem:
“Do you want to get well?”
In other words, Jesus asks him, “Do you actually want things to be different?”
The man’s answer? An excuse:
Well, I’m stuck here and other folks get to the water first and it’s not my fault and blah blah blah.
How many times have I done the same thing? How many times have you? How many times have you listed a litany of excuses while never taking the responsibility to put yourself in a position to change?
Jesus, as usual, cuts through the crap. [Pardon my French.]
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
To the man’s credit, he does! His desire to get well meets Jesus’s ability to make him well.
I think that’s how it works: we have to want what God wants for us.
Do you?