When Jesus saw him and knew he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  John 5:6

A man lay beside the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years, unable to walk. When walked up to him, He asked: “Do you want to be well?” That can sound strange until we remember how costly healing can be. For this man to be made whole, it would mean leaving the place he had known the longest and surrendering an identity shaped by ‘being the man who could not walk.’

And with that question, Jesus also exposed where the man had been placing his hope. The answer came back in logistics: “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred.” He did not yet see that for thirty-eight years; he had fixed his eyes on the pool.  Jesus had to shatter his illusion that the pool was his savior.

The man thought his deepest need was obvious: I need to be healed so I can walk. But Jesus knew there was something more important, something beneath the visible crisis.  Forgiveness. That is often the way of God. What we call the crisis is usually only the surface ache.

Over the last three months, I faced a health situation involving the potential loss of fingertips. They weren’t receiving enough oxygen. Painful ulcers formed, tissue deteriorated, and the pain was relentless. They are healing now, but only after God had my full attention and gently exposed a corresponding spiritual issue; something old that needed surrender. And when I yielded it, scabs and ulcers began to fall away. Pink skin emerged. Tender skin. New skin.

You will, most likely, see a difference in what comes from my pen.  More to come on all of this.  I’m able to type these words today, instead of dictate.  To God be the glory.

Lord, I am learning that when I come asking you for relief, You reach deeper for something I long ago set aside. I trust you.  Amen