(from John 5:1-8)

Do you remember the time when Jesus healed the crippled man who had been sitting by the pool at the Sheep Gate nearly all his life? The pool where all the invalids (the blind, crippled, the paralyzed) hung out in case an angel stirs the pool and the first one to jump in will be healed? Jesus came along and saw a crippled man lying there and asked him if he wanted to get well. I noticed that he didn’t exactly say, “Yes! Please heal me!” or “I believed that you can heal me Jesus!” It was more like, “Well, I could’ve been healed a long time ago, but I have nobody to help me get up to jump into the pool when the water is stirred, so somebody else gets healed instead…”

Funny how even if he didn’t know who Jesus was, he didn’t really answer his question and instead gave a summary of the hopeless situation he was in– that if the universe hadn’t conspired against him, everything would have been fine. Are we like that when faced with a dire situation? How many times has God asked us if we need any help and we reply and just point out the hopelessness of our situation, forgetting that we’re talking to A REALLY POWERFUL GOD.

I remember last year, I had just given up on the possibility of going to my best friend’s wedding in Michigan because I simply did not have money nor enough time to save up for it. While walking, a voice in my head just said, “If you really wanted to go that much, why didn’t you ask me?” and I was like, “Oo nga no, Lord?!” I said sorry right then and there, and asked if I could go. I went to my parents next and asked them if I could go, and they both said, “Of course you should go! He’s your best friend!” And they gave me money for the ticket and added to what I saved for my pocket money. So all I had to do was to stop moping about how I could’ve gone had I had more time to prepare, if my job paid more– and just ask God!

Of course, this doesn’t happen all the time, but, you know, it never hurts to ask in faith that God can and will give us what we need when we need it (or him/her haha!). I really believe that it’s a mercy that God doesn’t answer all our prayers. He’s the only one who sees the whole picture after all.

Another thought about the crippled man who was told to get up: I wonder how long it took for him to get used to using his legs again.He left Jesus rejoicing. And Jesus, upon bumping into him later, admonished him to stop sinning, now that he’s been healed. I wonder, did he wake up every morning grateful that he can walk or did Jesus’ admonition weigh heavily in his heart? Was he still grateful that he could walk even after the muscles hurt for a while? I wonder if he swore every time his knee would bump something or he stub his toe. Was he still grateful that he could walk even if he had to work for a living now, and walk everywhere now unlike before when people had to carry him around? One thing about being healed is that you’re not as weak as you were before, people don’t cut you any more slack and expect more from you now.

Funny that, I was just thinking that I can’t use the fact that my boyfriend had just broken up with me as an excuse so people would cut me some slack at work or at church or at home anymore. Because people could see– and I know– that I’m really more than fine. And it’s all because of God. Mahiya na lang ako if I still pretend that I’m still not fine just so I could get special treatment, after all that, right?

So what has God healed you from? What are the chains that He has broken to set you free? Whenever hard times come, always be grateful that He has given you the strength to withstand them and to grow from there.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

John 5:6-8 (NIV)