Do you Want to be Healed?
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and happy almost spring and especially almost Easter! Lent is always considered a time of sacrifice, but is also a wonderful time of reflection, forgiveness, and healing. One of the Scripture readings this week was about a paralyzed man whom Jesus asked, “Do you want to be well?” This man had been waiting for 38 years for someone to help him into the healing waters of Bethesda so that he could once again walk. Without even lowering him into the water, Jesus told him to rise, pick up his mat, and walk — and he did. What is almost more amazing after that though, is that he didn’t even ask who Jesus was. There was no mention of a thank you, or of him becoming a follower of Jesus. However, he did report Jesus to the authorities and got him into trouble because he had healed the man on a sabbath and also told him to “work” by picking up his mat, both of which were forbidden.
Can you even imagine doing what this man did after laying there paralyzed for 38 years? But think about what Jesus asked. He didn’t ask if the man wanted to be healed. He only asked the man if he wanted to be well. If we have something wrong physically and find a way to feel better, we sometimes are just ok with that. Christ came to heal us of paralyzing fear, depression, sadness, grief, anger, unforgiveness, spiritual blindness, and sickness of our souls. But we must truly want to be healed and not just feel better. We must truly want it bad enough that we stop feeling sorry for ourselves like this man must have done for all those years. He said he wanted to be well, but did he really?
This reminded me of a story that my Qigong instructor, Master Chunyi Lin, told several years ago. He had a woman who came to see him and was in terrible pain and asked if he could heal her. She had many people looking after her and taking care of her daily needs. They would visit her, bring her meals, clean her house, take her places, etc. After a few sessions with Master Lin, she was “well” and her pain was gone. Once she felt better and people realized she could now take care of herself, they stopped offering to help her and didn’t come to visit very often any more. Why should they? Master Lin gave her what she asked for. But after a while, she started feeling very sorry for herself because no one seemed to take care of her or even notice her like they used to. So all of her pain and symptoms came back. Just like the man at Bethesda who laid next to healing waters for all those years without asking anyone to put him in, she lived off of all the attention and sympathy she got by not being well. And if they, and we, are not well, we are not healed. Attention and sympathy can make us feel better, but it is no substitute for the healing power of love.
Pain and sickness are realities, but suffering is a choice. Walter Anderson said, “Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”
Christ came to heal a broken world. May you feel a true healing this Easter, one that makes your life complete and whole. So SMILE ! God loves you, and so do I !
Arlis Feser
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