REFLECTIONS

Just Do It

Many were lying around the pool that day, but it was not like a leisurely afternoon on the beach. They all came each day in search of the healing elements in the pool. Some suffered from blindness, some were lame, and others were paralyzed. It was their daily ritual to seek healing in the waters of the pool. Each of them wanted so much to overcome the physical problems that kept them from leading productive lives. This day was like all the others over the many years—only on this day Jesus came.

Looking over the scene of people waiting to be healed, Jesus asked one of them, “Do you want to get well?” “Yes,” the man replied, “but there is no one to help me.” Then Jesus commanded him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

In today’s language Jesus might have said, “Just Do It.” Just Do It is a trademark of a well known shoe company. It is their way to encourage customers to stop waiting around for change to happen and go do something. And maybe that is what Jesus was saying to the man that had been lame most of his life.

For thirty-eight years the man had made daily visits to the pool of Bethesda hoping to find someone to help him into its healing waters. The pool contained the cure, he believed, but he needed help getting into it. Day after day he came only to meet with disappointment. Then Jesus came and so did the cure. But Jesus did not stop to heal him first. “Get up!” Jesus exclaimed. And as the crippled man rose, his life was changed.

Sometimes we let things hold us back. Each day we face obstacles and imperfect conditions that discourage us from the pursuit of the goals and dreams of productive life. Sometimes those goals and dreams are even things God is calling us to do. But too often we look for a perceived need to be met before moving onward.

But when we look around to discover amputees with the courage to contend in grueling athletic events on prosthetic legs; basketball players competing with only one eye; and quadriplegics encouraging their peers to live productive lives from their wheelchairs, we realize they found no need to wait for a cure before they acted. They just did it.

That day the lame man stood in line to be healed by the waters of the Bethesda pool, but when Jesus called him to action, he waited no more. He just did it.

So, when it is our turn and Jesus calls you and me into action, should we seek out reasons to wait?

Or should we just do it remembering his promise, “I am with you always.”

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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