do you want to get well?

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, all too often, if I’m really honest, I have to admit that I really do not want to get well.  Forgive me for that.  Give me the desire for all of the life and the love you created me for.  Help me to never be content to settle for less.  Amen.

Scripture: John 5:1-15

Journal: Do you want to get well?  What does that mean to you?  How is Jesus asking you that today?

Reflection: “Do you want to get well?”  What a question!  Easy to answer, perhaps; on the surface of things anyway.  But when we dig down to the real questions and issues and beliefs and doubts and patterns of our lives, it is not so easy after all.  That is probably why Jesus asks (notice I didn’t say asked) it.  What is your answer?

     If we really want to get well, then why do we keep living as if we don’t?  Why do we keep feeding the false narratives and dysfunctional patterns that we say we so desperately want to get rid of?  For the narratives and patterns that we feed are the ones that are going to grow.

     So maybe the question is not quite so simple after all, but incredibly profound.  Do you want to get well?  Do you?  Really?  If so, then Jesus gives you the power and ability to do so.  If you are willing to “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.”  What do you say?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, Lord Jesus, when I would rather live in my brokenness and dysfunction than in your fullness and wholeness.  It baffles me that I would even consider that, but I do.  Help me to choose life today.  Help me to choose you.  Amen.