An Acknowledgement and Invitation
“'Do you want to be well?...Rise, take up your mat, and walk.'” - Jn 5: 6,8
In today’s Gospel, the sick man had been lying ill for thirty-eight years near a pool. Imagine lying in the same place for so long, feeling stuck and helpless– a refreshing pool of water just a few steps away and yet, so far out of reach. As time passes, you become chained to your own story– how you came to be here, how you have been abandoned and forgotten, how others are reaching your dreams before your very eyes as you stay in one place– stagnant, rotting. After a while, you even come to identify yourself as someone whose hopes have all passed them by. It becomes difficult to imagine a different reality.
Then Jesus approached the man and asked a simple question: “Do you want to be well?”
The question feels like acknowledgement– no one has asked you about so much as your day in so very long. You begin to tell this stranger about your plight.
And Jesus says, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
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There have been several times in my life, and also very recently, where I was that ill person– sometimes trapped due to circumstance, sometimes trapped by my own perceptions, oftentimes trapped by both. On the other side of my illness or ill perceptions, I find that the beauty of God’s love for me has been in His acknowledgement and His invitation. He sees me, and invites me to rise, move, and journey into what I had never before imagined for myself. His encouragement reaches me through my loved ones, through strangers, through circumstance, and through an internal stirring. And I hope I can listen more consistently– to hear and answer His invitation–to rise and walk, even when people, circumstances, and my perceptions might tell me I cannot. My hope is to live beyond my own limited imagination, and into God’s dream for me.
When have I felt trapped, stuck, and stagnant? Do I want to be well? Am I invited to see new possibilities, or my circumstances differently?
Krystelle Robeniol