“Do you want to be made well?” John 5:6 “Stand up, take your mat and walk”

John 5:8 (NRSV)

 

WHAT IS OUR ROAD BLOCK?

In my coaching business, I often wonder, do they really want to move forward? Do they really want to get a new job, fix their business or change their lives? Many times, I hear, “I had a bad week.” Or I will see a lack of follow through with the assigned goals from the previous week. This is the point where I can either be judgmental or help reframe the individuals vision of how to move forward. Being judgmental fails to recognize that the lethargy in solving their problem is part of the solution. Reframing and changing our behavior expands the solution required to help us move forward.

“The solution to our problems many times is looking at the problem differently and being committed to a different path.”

Many of us get stuck in a rut and can’t seem to make our way out. We skip over, that part of our problem is our habitual behavior.  We keep failing and feel inadequate when we can’t seem to move forward. We judge ourselves in a bad light. We know we should do something different, but can’t seem to rise up on a consistent basis to solve our problems. The solution, isn’t to just promise to ourselves we want to be better. The solution to our problems many times is looking at the problem differently and being committed to a different path. Instead of trying the same old way, try a different way. By doing this we set up a new course that changes the way we solve  problems.

“Jesus says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

In Today’s verse, Jesus approaches a man at a healing pool. The man had been going to the pool for thirty-eight years. For thirty-eight years the man had failed to make it into the pool to be healed. For thirty-eight years he thought his solution was the healing pool. For thirty-eight years, he waited for someone to help him into the pool. For thirty-eight years, no one helped him. Jesus says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” The man picks up his mat and began to walk. Did Jesus cure him supernaturally or did Jesus give him good advice? Both could be true. What is certainly true, the man recognized the power of Jesus’ word. At the moment of healing he recognized that Jesus was providing a different solution, which didn’t include going to the pool that he had been trying for thirty-eight years.

When we listen to Jesus, perhaps he heals us supernaturally. Or perhaps his life lessons heal us. Both can be true. Sometimes the solution is as simple as asking ourselves, “what would Jesus do?” It may seem trite to say this is all we have to do. It is perhaps too simple. It is an overused platitude. But this question is immensely  valid, “what would Jesus do?’ Part of the value of the Gospels is that they lay out for us the lessons of Jesus. When we are stuck in trying to solve a problem and our method of solving isn’t working. We have to change the method of solving our problems. Many times our solutions don’t happen, because we habitually use the same method to solve our problems. If we want to be healed, we have to change our methods.

Changing our life habits and working with Jesus is our best solution to life’s problems.

 

Blessings, until next time,
Bruce L. Hartman

 

PARTING THOUGHTS

What problems can’t we seem to shake?

Is there a different way to solve our problems?