"Do you want to get well?"

Post by: Imperfect

I have been reading in John 5:1-18. This is the story of Jesus healing the invalid man at the pool of Bethesda. What I normally do when I read a passage of scripture is read it over and over and over and over and over and OVER again. I do this because I am OCD…just kidding…I do this so I can be completely immersed in a passage and it helps me get a “feel” for what is going on.

Anyway, I was struck with the question Jesus asks the invalid in verse 6…”Do you want to get well?” (NIV). Does this question seem a little off to anyone else??? See in my brain I’m like, why even ask the question…seems kind of stupid (don’t say stupid, it’s not a nice word!)…of course he wants to get well he has been an invalid for THIRTY-EIGHT years!! But then I remind myself that this is Jesus and when Jesus asks a question I should probably pay attention.

So I start looking at the man’s response. He doesn’t scream “YES”, actually he doesn’t even say “YES”, he just gives an excuse of why he hasn’t been able to get well yet. “See I can’t get down to the water after it’s stirred because I don’t have anyone to help me, you see.” (Imperfect translation). So then I wonder why he is not saying “yes” over and over. Why the excuse and not the answer.

And then my thoughts stray to life, life as I know it right now. There are areas that I am dealing with right now that I feel like Jesus is asking me, “Do you want to get well?” And instead of answering “Yes” I just give Him excuses as to why I can’t. And then there are also areas where I don’t give Him any excuses and I still don’t feel well. Things just haven’t changed, patterns, habits, guilt, excuses…they are all still there. And then I start to look around and think about the lives of some of the people I know and some of these people have been beaten down by the worst of the world and I wonder “How are they going to be well?” “How is Jesus going to work?” These are things I don’t have the answers to and honestly I probably won’t EVER! But I do have a hope and a faith that Jesus can see what’s going on and He does care! God desires for us to be well, to be whole or He would have never sent His one and only Son to die for our sins so we could have a way to Him (John 3:16). And God didn’t do this so we could feel condemned (John 3:17) or guilty but so we could be in a relationship and the thing that was so broken could be fixed!

So I keep finding myself having the thought of Jesus asking, “Do you want to be well?” when different things happen. And I have decided that instead of giving Him an excuse as to why I couldn’t be well, I am going to say “Yes”. Will you?

Just a sidenote: Remember that my name is Imperfect and there is a reason for that, I am NOT perfect. I am striving be a Spirit-sourced-Jesus-loving woman, but I mess up A LOT! And it seems like when God is trying to teach me something new, through scripture, it takes a SUPER long time for it to finally sink in and even then I mess up. So please don’t think I have this all down because honestly I DON’T!