Do You Want To Get Well?

I went to my small group tonight. It was lots of fun to see dear friends. I love everyone in my small group. We talked about the 5th chapter of the book of John in the New Testament which was really written in Old Testament times, if you think about it. (Thanks, Pastor John.) This man with some sort of illness, paralysis, who had been sitting around for 38 years waiting for his "miracle" was asked by Jesus if he wanted to get well. This sick man seemed like a prime candidate for a recovery group. Making excuses for keeping his illness. I hate to be hard on him; I've been there.

The "religious leaders" got right in the sick man's face once he was walking with his mat across town. Jesus had healed the sick man, horror of horrors, on the sabbath. I guess the religious leaders had power over the recently healed man, because, when they confronted him with his audacity - walking with his mat on Sunday, he said the guy who healed him said to carry his mat and walk. He must have felt less than. He could have said, "Hey! I just got healed. Let's take a moment and celebrate, people. Let's throw a party for the guy who healed me! OK?" But, he didn't.

So, I was thinking about wanting to be well, the people who help that process, and those who don't, who actually try to sabotage healing, worth and value. The gravity people, legalists, who are more than happy to dig your grave for you with you shoveling. Where was the grace? Why didn't they say, "Wow, how kind of the guy who healed you. You were on our hearts and in our prayers all these years." (As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you...I Samuel 12:23) No, it was more like, "Rat on your healer and it will go better for you."

I got a picture tonight of a little girl pulling a large cart. A cart of stuff she doesn't need to carry, rags and other worthless stuff, garbage. Maybe someone, a legalist, an abuser, a walled-up wounded person, told her to pull the cart. Made her pull the cart. And she grew up just pulling that cart day in and day out. As an adult, no one has told her to pull the cart of garbage anymore, but she pulls it. It just feels normal. Then Jesus or someone like Jesus comes up to the grown up little girl, and says, "Do you really want to pull that cart anymore, dear one?" No one has ever taken the time to care about her like that. I mean really care about having her drop the cart of garbage and being free of it. .............I'll go draw the little girl....well, it's midnight, so I'll have to finish tomorrow.