Intense Choices

The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." (John 5:7-8)

As I ponder these verse again this morning I see something more coming out here. One of the main differences between the words – the invitation of Jesus – and the content of the answer that this man gave in response reveals the presence of lies and a misunderstanding of the truth about how God viewed him.

Jesus never varied once in His words to this man from the one point which the man needed to grasp. Jesus was able in just a very few words to expose the crippled man's false assumptions, to compel him to face these false assumptions by flushing them into the open and then giving him opportunity to choose to turn away from them to a completely different way of life. Yes, it must be Jesus, the Source of all real life and hope and joy that must be the originator of the words that offer us life. But when that confrontation comes to the soul I must be willing to lay hold on them, trust the heart from which they came and choose to act on them.

The undergirding lies that this man and all of us are so accustomed to believing are many, varied and very 'normal' feeling. Miracles are viewed as unusual and rare precisely because so few people are willing to believe God, to act on His words and to live life in the realm of reality as heaven sees it instead of what everyone around us believes about it. I am no different in this respect from everyone else. I too grapple with even understanding where my own unbelief has roots and what I need to choose to enter into saving belief. But in the meantime I can make choices that will tend to predispose my heart toward making the right choice when the times come when Jesus confronts me directly and asks me to get up and walk too.

To choose to get up and walk along with doing things that to everyone around me is clearly wrong in their eyes is to take huge risks when it comes to my reputation and social status. This man was instructed to do something that was a clear and grievous violation of settled law, doctrine and social norms. Because of that the choice he faced was mingled with confusion if he was concerned about staying out of trouble with the authorities. And yet the desire to enter into new life, to be free to celebrate and thrive and experience many things that had been kept from him for so long was greater than the fear that sought to restrain and confuse him.

The same is true many times today. We are faced with choices that often seem confusing when we compare the invitations of Jesus to our heart with the rigid expectations and norms of religion or social regulations. To live life in joy and celebration and in harmony with heaven is always to find one's self out of sync with nearly everyone around us. And the pressure will immediately come to conform back to the way things were before. The guilt trips will be imposed, the condemnation and religious insinuations will be felt and the questions about the integrity of the Source of our information will be questioned severely.

The lies inside will usually line up conveniently with the expectations on the outside, for it was our surroundings that usually was the source of the inward lies to start with. God is in the business of challenging lie after lie in our hearts and seeking to speak truth into those areas and triggers that harbor fear and distrust and unbelief. The choice comes down to which will govern our choices and our future – the fears of what others may say about us or do to us, or the desire to obey God and move into a radical new life of freedom, joy and companionship with heaven.