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“Do you want to get well?”
In John 5:6, Jesus asks a man who cannot walk, “Do you want to be made well?”
In context, the question seems odd seeing how we have already been told the man spends his days lying beside a pool renowned for its healing qualities. When we consider that the text says he had been in this debilitating condition for almost forty years, the question Jesus poses almost seems insulting or cruel.
In reality, Jesus can see that the man’s identity is deeply tied to his affliction, the routine it enforces, and the position it has placed him in for so long. Ultimately, Jesus heals the man and sets him free to begin a new life. While this account offers a practical example of the healing/restoring aspects of Christ’s earthly ministry, it also provides insight into our own need for spiritual healing today.
Sometimes we must give up a thing we identify with or take comfort in to begin to recover. In this account, the man was known as the one who lay daily by the pool. He was identified as a long-time lame man for whom his physical lack had become the defining aspect of his life. Not just the severity, but length of time and public place played a role in this reputation.
While we are not all physically marked, we too can gain an identity because of our life circumstances. We all know great high school athletes who are still remembered for their sporting skills decades after leaving the field. We know folks who are always seen as “the life of the party” regardless of how old they are. If we are not careful, we can allow these types of outward reputation to define us inwardly as well. We can get stuck in a familiar identity and find ourselves playing into a set role.
When we encounter Christ, the old self dies, and a new life is begun (Rom 6:1-4). We can no longer live just as we did before but now look to live as embodied examples of Christ (Gal 2:20). We may still look the same physically, but we no longer draw our primary identity from our past reputation, our current positions, or our family connections. In Christ, we are united with all others who have made this commitment regardless of our outward differences (Gal 3:26-29).
In addition to laying the old life down, the new life we are called to demands changes not only our hearts but our public-facing actions. The remains of our old life will seek to cling to us and stereotype us into shame, but as we mature in the Christian life, new thoughts, actions, and habits help to move us forward.
Was I a profane man before? Now I seek to intentionally speak with kindness and grace. Was I always working to pursue my own gain? Now I use my blessings to bless others. Was I known to others as a braggart, a cheat, or a self-righteous critic? I acknowledge these sins, find peace in Christ’s grace, and then move toward repairing relationships with others.
Jesus confronted the lame man because true recovery can only come when we are honest about our need. We can no more fix ourselves spiritually than the man in John 5 could will himself to perfect physical health. Being content to apply a fresh band-aid each day will never heal a deep wound that requires surgery- only when we admit the depth of our need will we admit our own limitations and cry out for His healing. When we come face to face with the Great Physician, may we have the self-awareness to see our deep hurts and receive His compassionate care.
Beloved of the Father
One of the driving themes of Scripture is the ongoing relationship of God with His people. Whether as the LORD Almighty of the prophet’s vision (Isa 6), the God-Who-Sees Hagar’s distress (Gen 16), or the Babe of Bethlehem (Mt 1-2), our God shows up again and again both in power and in proximity. Despite lacking nothing, God is constantly moving toward relationship. In this reality, God more fully reveals His desire for community. Not only does He seek us and nearness to us, there is an eternal relational aspect present within God’s nature as Father, Son, and Spirit.
With Father’s Day this Sunday, many people will be reflecting on their relationships with their earthly fathers. Some kids are picking out BBQ supplies or golf balls to surprise their dads while others are wondering where their fathers are and why they are not present in their lives. Some of us grown-ups will get together with our fathers and give thanks for the bonds we share or will be blessed by precious memories of a good father gone from this life, but others will experience their fathers through a brief text message, an awkward phone call, the silence of estrangement, or a visit to the cemetery.
The human fathers of Scripture too are a mixed assortment of strengths and weaknesses. Abraham is seen as the father of the faithful, yet he struggled in his daily role as a husband and father. Like Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were frequently flawed as family men. David was a man who sought the heart of God and composed beautiful psalms of praise, and yet his parenting produced sons filled with lust, arrogance, and poor judgement. The gifted disciple Timothy was brought up in the faith not by his spiritually absent father, but by a godly mother and grandmother who tirelessly taught him the Scriptures. What does this mixed review reveal about men as fathers and our lives as the people of God?
All human fathers are people, and no person is perfect. The patriarchs (the fathers of the faith such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), despite their struggles, were acknowledged as having covenant relationships with the one true God. God reveals Himself to Moses by saying, “I am the God of your father— the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). In order to clarify to Moses who He is, God connects Himself in relationship to these flawed men of faith. God also claims a relationship not just with these long-dead ancestors, but with Moses’s own little-known father (Amram) who had lived his whole life under the bitter yoke of slavery.
When we are confused about His identity, God reveals to us who He is through His relationship with our fathers. Even if our earthly fathers were not believers, as disciples we are all part of God’s spiritual family going back to the beginning when He created us in His image as relational beings.
At times, we forget who we are. We become distracted by the urgency of the present, and we lose sight of the fact that we are a part of a great heritage of the godly men and women of the past. If we are/were blessed with a Christ-like father who loved us well, may we give thanks for how he demonstrated our heavenly Father to us. If our relationship with our own father is/was complex/estranged/absent, may we take comfort that in the family of God, we are given His care and compassion far beyond any human’s ability. If tempted to lose faith in people, may we lean more deeply into the embrace of our Good Father and share His love with those we encounter this week.
Wish I Had Known
Perhaps you have heard folks say, “If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have done some things different.”
While living in regret and focusing only the past are not long-term paths to a healthy life, there is value in being able to see things we did poorly and to use these shortcomings as reminders to keep improving and to encourage others to avoid our mistakes. With a milestone birthday next week, I want to share some thoughts related to the regrets I hear most often and, at times, feel myself.
Maintain the relationships that matter most. As a minister, I have taken part in dozens of funerals and memorial services over the years. While in some ways each grief is personal, one reality I have seen again and again is that our closest relationships are often complex and complicated. No relationship- spouse, parent, child, best friend- stays the same over time. We must come to realize that as our lives change, we must invest time and effort in strengthening the relationships that matter most. We cannot assume that people know how we feel, what we meant, or why we made the choices we did. Making the effort to spend time with the people that matter to us now helps us to build and strengthen bonds across a lifetime. It is easy to allow physical distance, changing circumstances, or a relatively small disagreement to cause a tiny crack that widens over time. In the end, it will not matter how much I achieve if I sacrifice the people that matter most.
Take breaks in the midst of life’s busyness. One challenge facing us and our relationships is the danger of being constantly overextended. While Scripture encourages us to make the most of our opportunities, there is no glory in burning out due to taking on more and more without adequate rest. Each of us need to realize the importance of pacing our lives to finish well rather than to shine only for a short season. Work is an important aspect of life, but we need times of rest and recovery to do our best work. In our modern culture, much of the recreation that we embrace is entered into almost as if it is a career. We spend money, time, and commitment not actually taking a break but cultivating hobbies and interests as intense as our work lives. Every activity should not demand our most intense effort- this realization is not to excuse shoddy work or poor use of time, but a conscious understanding that we must pace our lives with stamina for the long haul rather than attempting such an intensity of activity across all areas of life that can never realistically be maintained.
Realize the value of choosing faithfulness. If we admit we need time to build relationships and yet we are often too busy, these two realizations should cause us to be thoughtful in choosing our priorities. We make choices every day concerning our time, effort, and commitments. What a terrible thing to realize we have worn ourselves out chasing more and more all the while losing out on intimacy in our family, friendships, and our walk with the Lord. Knowing we cannot do everything or be everywhere, we must remember importance of being grateful for our blessings and choosing faithfulness right where we are.
We often convince ourselves that tomorrow there will be more opportunities to tell people how we feel or to better prioritize our lives. Regardless of our stage of life, none of us live with guarantees about the future. With this reality in view, may we resolve to say what needs to be said and to change what needs to be changed starting right now.
How We Hold Together
You have likely seen such vehicles after a big community yard sale. Driven by a person who “was just going to look,” it is now filled with two tables, three mismatched chairs, some assorted shelves, multiple lamps, and several boxes of odds and ends. This bounty is held in the back of the small pickup with bungee straps, some well-worn packing twine, and no small measure of hope. As this heavy-laden truck passes, you think, “There is no way that will hold together.”
When we look at the church as described in the pages of the New Testament, any outsider, even one sympathetic to this new movement, would have taken one look at the odd assortment of people that made up that first Christ-centered community, and thought, “There is no way they will hold together.”
And yet they did- often remarkably well.
We could credit God’s favor on the early church, and Scripture testifies to that reality. It could be pointed out that beginning on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus the church was blessed with the powerful, miracle-bringing gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the fact that almost all of the original leaders had been personally discipled by Jesus Himself. While all of these factors combined to bless the church, I also believe those early disciples had to choose to stay focused and faithful to their message and this shared message of love, grace, and hope experienced in Christ Jesus not only anchored them in Him- it bound them to each other.
One trait we clearly recognize in the early church was their belief that both blessings and burdens were to be communal experiences. This connection was material and financial, but it was also expressed in deep emotional and spiritual commitments. These first Christians were concerned about the general welfare of the community of faith. In the survival-of-the-fittest world of the Roman empire, a world not all that different from our own, Christians were to be moved by each other’s joys and sufferings. Paul summarized this spirit in the quotable reminder to the congregation at Rome- “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15).
Not only was the early church emotionally united, they also sought (often imperfectly) to subdue all party spirit to the authority of Christ. Identifiers that shaped their worldviews and relationships outside of the church were to be overwhelmed by the higher calling of devotion to Christ. Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia to remind them that distinctions of ethnicity, gender, and cultural background, while not ceasing to exist outwardly, were to be submitted to the greater unity found in shared commitment to Christ. As long as differences were allowed to hold dominant sway over Christian hearts and behavior, the church struggled, but when such differences were acknowledged as present but placed under Christ’s authority, the church benefited and was blessed by differing perspectives. Ultimately, as a patchwork of different regions, races, and worldviews, the church was forced to confront the reality that, as “the greatest of these,” love must serve to align diverse gifts and perspectives (1 Cor 13).
Today, if we want to hold together and present a united witness to our world, we must love the truth of God’s Word and allow His Word to guide us in loving each other. We hold on to Jesus, and we strive to hold on to each another. This love for God and love for neighbor is the foundation not only of any lasting Christian unity but is also our best hope for a kinder, more grace-filled world.
Slowing Down, Listening Up
While writing in my favorite coffeeshop last week, a professor at our local university who I had not seen recently walked by and said, “Will, it’s good to see you. How long have you been here?”
Thinking he meant serving the church in our community, I replied, “Over 20 years now.”
He gave me a slightly puzzled look.
“I meant in this coffeeshop. I must have missed you when I walked in.”
My answer was accurate, but not accurate for the question he was actually asking. Life can be like that as well; we are giving a right answer, but we have failed to truly understand the nature of the question.
Much of the conflict and confusion in our culture comes from missed (or missing) communication. We spend a lot of time talking, but too often we are talking passed one another. Because we often focus on responding to others rather than reflecting on what they truly mean, we end up confused and frustrated. How can I better hear what others are saying when topics arise where we disagree?
Turn down the temperature. One issue that quickly can sidetrack a conversation is when the level of emotion becomes elevated too quickly. This type of heated exchange fuels cable news, talk radio, and religious discussion boards, but often causes potentially meaningful conversations to fizzle. If I am passionate about an issue, I must also consider that the other person may be just as passionate. This realization is especially helpful if I take the time to realize that I may not be as personally invested in the subject as my counterpart. If we are discussing adoption, I may have many well-researched ideas, but if the person sitting across from me was adopted as a child or is currently in the adoption process after years of infertility, I do not share the same connection to the subject. This realization is not some type of moral relativism, it is simply acknowledging the fact that no two people come to any conversation with the same background, and our experiences deeply shape our thoughts and emotions. The writer of Proverbs 15:1 wisely notes the need to “chill out” before responding in anger and says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” When I can pause to gentle and soften the conversation, I stand a better chance of both truly hearing and being heard.
Consider the time and place. It is also important to consider the timing and setting of the exchange. If a person confronts me with an online comment at 2 AM, I won’t see it immediately, can choose to ignore it, or if needed, follow up privately. If a person asks me something in a one-on-one conversation, I have more time and focus to respond well rather than being put on the spot in a larger group like in a staff meeting or church assembly. Not every question merits a response, and not every answer needs to be given in an immediate, public way. Our instant, social media-saturated world tells us that to respond quickly is to win, but the opposite is almost always true. The person who can slow down and consider the best, most helpful way to respond in the specific setting is more likely to make a lasting difference.
When we fail to pay attention to others, we open ourselves up to confusion and conflict. As we live each day, may we seek to imitate the Prince of Peace who understood and modeled the power of listening and faithfully responding to people’s needs in ways that best fit the demands of the moment.
Prayer for Stormy Times
Father God, the weather is unpredictable, but we know that You are constant and ever-sure.
Like the spring, we too are inconstant; often blown off course and shifting in the challenges and trials of life.
You know our frame, our limitations, our weaknesses. Despite our defenses, we falter, fail, and fall.
Help us to see that our effort at self-defense always leaves us short of the deliverance that can only be experienced in surrender to You. Give us the ability to see the folly of resisting our great need for Your divine care and grace in each moment of our lives.
Even we who long to reach upward can never scale to the perfect heights we seek. We give thanks that in lovingkindness You descend to us.
In the blessings of our daily experiences, in the bold assertions of Your word, in the beautiful community of the church- You show us more of what we can be.
Yet these gifts would be nothing without the Giver.
Incarnate in Bethlehem, walking in Galilee, dying outside Jerusalem, rising in power to die no more.
In Jesus, You come among us clothed in the dust and ashes of creation.
You do not offer an absentee love, but place the fullness of Yourself in our midst.
To the vulnerable, You are a protector.
To the self-sufficient, You are a servant.
To the prideful, You are a warning.
To the broken, You are a healer.
To the burdened, You are a liberator.
To the hungry and hopeless, You are Daily Bread and Living Water.
To the lost, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In Your grace, You choose to place Your love upon us. You extend constant sustaining blessings and the opportunity for salvation.
What more could You do to give Yourself to us and for us?
Help us to see this love. Help us to accept it. Help us to experience it more and more fully, and help us to live our lives in response to it. In this season, let us choose to pass forward the love we have received.
In tense times and uncertain days, may our lives be marked by a Christ-like humility that silences the mouths of critics and opens the hearts of cynics.
Let us not be bewitched by power nor lulled into passivity. Give us the courage to withstand the assaults of enemies and the compromises of friends. Grant us, as Your people, the ability to shine light into the darkness.
Let us not be tossed by the stormy winds that threaten from both within and without, but let us instead be fixed and anchored to a love that cannot be shaken and will not be moved.
In Christ’s holy name and through His power we pray, amen.
No rules, just right (?)
You may remember an advertising slogan adopted by Outback Steakhouse over a decade ago. Playing up the casual, Australian-influenced vibe of the restaurant chain, the company coined the catchphrase- “No rules, just right.”
The aim of the ad was to convince you to have a nice meal in a causal atmosphere and that, despite being based in Tampa, FL, it was exotic and edgy to head to the Outback for dinner.
Occasionally, I hear someone say, “Don’t you wish you could just say what you really think? We need to let people know we aren’t going to stand for what they are doing!”
This statement is usually implying that the unwritten rules of society or politeness prevent us from saying and doing what we really want. We seem to wish that a place could exist where there would be no rules and it would be just right for us. In reality, we might be forced to admit that in a world full of imperfect people, we do in fact need rules, whether laws or manners, that help to provide guidance and structure to our society.
The best rules are not intended primarily to limit personal freedom, but to provide protection and fairness to the larger whole. The Christian life calls us to freedom in Christ, but in the same verse we are warned not to use our grace-bought salvation as a covering to continue in our personal vices (Gal 5:13). Paul reminds us that in Christ “no one lives to himself, and no one dies to himself” (Rom 14:7).
Our lives in this world, and especially within the body of Christ, are mutually dependent. While the law of the Spirit has set us free, we are not to use our liberty to judge or abuse others who have not yet accepted or understood this gift of God. Rather than embracing an aggressive, haughty spirit in regard to our rights, we are cautioned again and again not to focus on our own interests, but to be concerned about interests of others (Phil 2:4). Spiritually, freedom is not a license to sin and live as we want, but is a calling to serve and to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Rom 6:1-4; Eph 5:21).
We all need guidance in this life, we need structure, we need guardrails.
We must come to appreciate that the rule of Christ in our lives is actually the source of true liberty and lasting freedom as we experience forgiveness and hope in Him.
Under the Old Covenant, the people of God lived with a set of commandments that touched each aspect of their lives. As we often still do today, these ancient believers added customs and traditions to this already detailed code of life. While its words were the truth of God, the spirit of legalism that sprang up around the Law became a burden rather than a blessing. This system of legal codes plus customs became more complex and convoluted over the centuries.
When challenged to rank these commandments, Jesus declared that love for God and love for neighbor are the two great commands that lie behind all others (Mark 12:28-34). For disciples of Jesus, such love ultimately serves as the overarching rule of life. If we are led by love, we will not insist on our own way, but will submit our lives in worship and service. In reality, the rule of love does not restrain our freedom but leads us toward genuine relationship with God and with others.
Love is the one rule, but it’s just right.
Thoughts for Thanksgiving
As we near Thanksgiving, many people will be discussing the history of this holiday and the ways our celebrations have altered through the years. Whether you observe a traditional meal with family, spend the day serving others, watch football with friends, or work in an essential job, we as believers do not actually require a specific setting to celebrate and give thanks. We remember Paul’s encouragement from 1 Thessalonians 5, “In everything, give thanks.”
What are some circumstances in which we can especially celebrate and give thanks for the goodness of God?
We should give thanks each time we worship. One of our most joyful callings as Christians is to worship. When we look at the pages of Scripture, we see not only accounts of worship among God’s people, but we even can read the words which have been said/sung in worship for millennia. During the challenges of COVID, we saw the renewed importance of public worship with the gathered church, and we must also have hearts filled with praise and devotion each day. As God’s people, we need to be so attuned with worship that when we miss it, we truly miss it. We give thanks for the freedom we have to worship, and we should give thanks to God that He desires our praise and blesses with us the truth and spirit to guide our interactions with Him.
In addition to worship, we should give thanks for every opportunity to serve others. While we exalt the Lord in our praises, we are likewise called to turned our gratitude into a drive to carry the love of Christ into the world. Each day, we are given opportunities to celebrate being the hands and feet of Jesus to a world besieged by conflicts and hardships. Our prayer ought to be, “Thank You, Lord, for Your gifts and grace to me. Open my eyes to the needs of others, and make me a servant.” Scripture gushes with both commands and examples regarding the church’s call to serve (James 1:27; Mt 23:11; Rom 12:1; John 13). It is the goal of a disciple to imitate the master. As Christ demonstrated, we should not seek to be served, but to serve and to offer our lives for others (Mt 20:28).
Worship and service ought to be a constant in our approach to discipleship, but we should greatly celebrate each time we see a person come to Christ. The earliest conversions to Christ always brought rejoicing (Acts 2:40-47; 8:39; 16:34). We should never get tired of telling the story of Jesus and witnessing the good news change lives. We must avoid “elder brother syndrome” (Luke 15) and “early riser syndrome” (Mt 20:1-16). We cannot allow longer lives of faithfulness to become a platform to judge others who have taken a different path, but instead our lives are to be a venue of rejoicing when the lost are found and gathered home to the Father.
I am thankful for you as a reader, and I am grateful that we have an opportunity to celebrate the goodness of God together as we meet in this space from time to time. We are a blessed people, and through our engagement with one another, we learn, grow, and are able to draw closer to unity based in Christ.
The Christian life is not meant to be a sour, negative, gripe-filled experience.
We give thanks for our blessings past, and we long to be strengthened as we continue our journey of faith.
Power in Gratitude
In recent years, our society has come to appreciate more and more the power of our attitudes, thoughts, and perspectives to shape our lives. We are not simply a mathematical-like result of the things that have happened to us- we are greatly shaped by the way we understand and relate internally to life’s events. We see firsthand how attitude can impact a classroom, a workplace, or a sports team.
One path to a stronger inner life is cultivating a greater sense of gratitude.
Of all the gratitude we might offer in this life, I believe the intentional decision to give thanks to God should be our starting point. I include the phrase “intentional decision” because far too often our thanksgiving to God can become unfocused and generic. While we are certainly thankful for “all our many blessings,” it will powerfully change the mental/spiritual impact of our gratitude when we make offering specific thanks to God a part of every day.
Was the sunrise beautiful this morning? Offer thanksgiving in that moment.
Did a friend receive good news about a health scare? Pause and give thanks.
Has your wayward adult child expressed a desire to return to Christ? Let your heart exalt in thanksgiving then and there.
Did the meeting at work go well with all parties leaving satisfied? Lift a word of thanks for that blessing.
In reality, it is not that we lack things to be thankful for, but that we are often not paying attention and fail to acknowledge God as the source of the good in our lives. Deciding to see His blessings and to speak thanks to Him changes our perspective for the better.
While God is to be thanked for every good gift, it is also vital that we freely offer thanks to the people around us. In the busyness of daily life, it can be easy to take for granted the presence and sacrifices of parents, spouse, children, or coworkers. We do not need special occasions to thank those who have shaped us into who we are.
Showing gratitude to those nearest to us is sometimes difficult not due to distance or lack of opportunity, but simply because we do not intentionally think about it or because it seems odd to offer thanks for what we expect from certain people. Even routine actions that we might have taken for granted at work or around the house present occasions for gratitude and thanks.
Grace and gratitude naturally work to bond people and to diffuse potential conflict. Much tension in our personal relationships could be resolved if we thanked more and criticized less.
In perhaps an odd turn, I also mention that we should offer thanks to those who oppose us. When people disagree with us or our views, we can respond with grateful appreciation for the reminder to examine our position and make any needed corrections. Even if we are in the right, such opposition provides us with more opportunities to offer grace to others. It is hard to see that sometimes the very thing that seems to harm us in the moment is an avenue to greater blessing and influence. Growth comes not from opposition itself, but from our response and our choice to see challenges as potential channels of blessing.
Living our days in a mindset that actively seeks to be thankful will change how we perceive and respond in our relationships and in the circumstances of our lives.
Gratitude possesses great spiritual power, and when we intentionally look for blessings and seek opportunities to give thanks, we will always find more of both.
will norrid writes 