He sat with us at our kitchen table, the way I sat by him in Biology class,

At cold, black tables where we learned about cells and dissected frogs.

15 years but a whole lotta life since then,

Roads taken, choices made, losses grieved~and we learn not all roads lead back to Home.

He said, “I really don’t know what I believe about God anymore.”

I knew.

His life said that to me before he did.

I remembered the way Jesus looked at people in Matthew 9~

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Compassion.

Did this boy-turned-man see compassion in followers of Christ, did he see it in me?

He sat there in my kitchen, and all I could think was, God, help us…help him! Jesus, open his eyes…You’re going to have to get past too much though…decades of pain, life-defining rejection, years of piled-up sin, addiction, confusion…How will you get past all of that?

How would Jesus get past all of that? Earlier this week, I read this story in John 5. Jesus came to a pool in Jerusalem where disabled people would sit in order to be healed. The locals there believed that an angel came and stirred the water from time to time, and then the first person into the pool would be healed of their disease or disability.

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When 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?” “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.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:3-9 (NIV)

For SO LONG, this man needed to be healed. But someone else always got in before him. And then Jesus came and reached out with His words. He spoke and the man was healed. The man already had something to hope in–the pool of healing, but it wasn’t the pool that came through for him. It was Jesus.

Maybe you’re not an invalid, as I am not, but don’t we all live like we’re paralyzed on the inside sometimes? This week, I felt like Jesus was asking me, Do you want to get well? And telling me, Get up! Pick up your (mat) and (walk). He gave me different words to fill in the blanks with. What words would He put in those blanks for you?

I ran into this song in the early 90’s, and it has helped me through a lot of hard, defining moments in my life. I would replay it time and again when needed. My way of coming just as I was. Do you see yourself in any of these words?

“The Robe” by Wes King

Anyone whose heart is cold and lonely

Anyone who can’t believe

Anyone whose hands are worn and empty,

Come as you are.

Anyone whose feet are tired of walking

And even lost their will to run

There is a place of rest for your aching soul,

Come as you are.

 

For the robe is of God

That will clothe your nakedness

And the robe is His grace,

It’s all you need

Come as you are.

Anyone who feels that they’re unworthy

Anyone who’s just afraid,

Come sinner, come and receive His mercy,

Come as you are.

Lord, We need your grace, and if anyone here feels like they can’t believe…if any are tired and worn, empty-handed, feeling unworthy or afraid, I ask You to help them come to You, as they are. Thank you for taking us dirty and messed up and worn out, that none of us can claim we are better than another, because it is YOU who heals us and cleans us up. All we do is come….  Now, I ask You to use this little effort to draw the harassed and helpless to You, Amen.