The Challenge of Change

Jesus asked the man sitting near the healing pool, "Do you really want to be healed?" The man had been sick and paralyzed his entire life and could not understand the question. He felt like saying "Duh! Why do you think I sit here everyday?" Instead, he said, "I cannot get into the pool to receive healing because I have no one to carry me there and everyone crowds ahead of me". In other words, I am a victim of circumstances and there is nothing I can do about it except hope and wish that things would get better. Do you ever say things like that or feel that way? I do, all the time. Sometimes, many times, my mindset is one of "I'm just not lucky enough, or skillful enough, or brave enough....... to have what I want, what I need". And by thinking so, I confirm my fate.

By thinking this way and answering in this way, I'm almost defending why my life must stay stuck. Some might observe that perhaps I want to stay unhappy. Some might even venture that I LIKE being unhappy, that I get some kind of sick pleasure out of misery. I believe that this is certainly possible in the case of many individuals, myself included. Sometimes there's just nothing like a good "crying in one's beer" because "misery loves company". We have many sayings in our country that point to this fundamental identification with enjoying our self pity and the pity parties it engenders. This all points back to the false self and false importance of self that we have created.

Jesus told us what is important: loving the Lord God with everything you have and loving everyone else as much as Jesus loved us. So, love, obedience and service to others, that's important stuff. Everything else is small stuff. Paradoxically, when one does those things that Jesus says to do, abundance flows into one's life and there is little to be miserable about even if one were to regress to that point. Ironically, accepting and surrendering to whatever situation or circumstance God has brought into our lives at the moment; embracing the "bad", "difficult" or "challenging" things in our lives; moving toward instead of away from those things that upset or scare us or anger us, inevitably lifts us above the things of this world, especially if our focus is on those things that started this paragraph. Instead of blaming the darkness for your plight, bring in the light.

So, how would you answer Jesus' question? Do you really want to be healed? If so, desire that it be so, have faith that it will be so and it will be so. Do not harbor anger, resentments, or self pity. Accept your situation without making it your identity. Allow yourself the possibility of healing. Accept the forgiveness freely offered to you by your Father in heaven and let the healing begin!