Dependent Upon Man

“When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’   ‘Sir…I have no one to help me.’  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk’ John 5:6-8. 

I have read this story several times and just discovered something I previously had not considered.  The place was Bethesda, a pool believed to have healing waters once stirred.  Surrounding this pool were many sick people lying around waiting for their tiny window of miracle and deliverance.  We are not told how long this man had been attempting to be healed.  What we are told is that he was lying on a mat waiting for someone to help. (I have no one to help me)  One big mistake that had prevented him from healing was his belief that healing came through man.

In my 30’s I so desperately desired to be accepted in a community which was extremely closed to outsiders.  If you were not born in this community you were welcomed but not really accepted.  Time and time again I reclined on my mat of rejection, awaiting the time where hearts would be stirred and acceptance would be mine.  Tiny windows opened but no one ever moved me to the pool of acceptance.  It wasn’t until circumstances became so public and extreme with my daughter’s rebellion that healing came to me.  Jesus knew that my healing would not come through the waters of acceptance but through the deliverance from a Savior who would comfort, accept and lavish me with His love.  His requirement of me was not to move into the waters for these were not life giving waters.  His command was for me to get up and walk with Him.  Although I thought the healing waters would come from the acceptance of those in my community, they came from a different pool…they came from Living Waters.

Several decades later this community has changed its face as so many people have moved into the area.   I love my community and feel completely a part of this amazing place but this acceptance didn’t come from the stirring of the pool…it came from God’s stirring of my heart.

‘Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.’ Gal. 1:10.