FOCUSED ON THE POOL

John 5:1-13

I have often wondered why the lame man at the pool of Bethesda is usually portrayed as whiny (nobody to help me) and full of excuses (someone always gets there ahead of me).  I never saw him that way.  Why? Let’s look at the facts.

1. It was the time of the year an angel stirred the waters of the pool.  The 1^st person in, got healed.
2.  Bethesda had 5 porches full of blind, lame, paralyzed, etc. people waiting for the stirring of the water.  5 porches.
3.  The man had been crippled for 38 years.  38 years.
4.  The man was there alone.
5. Other people had folks to help them.

There was not a set day, hour, minute and second that the angel stirred the pool.  It might be 10 a.m. or 11 p.m.  No one knew.  They only knew there was a time of the year.  During that time, these sick people stayed at the pool.  (Picture Black Friday.)  They slept there.  They ate there. So, you know they were also sick there. There were oozing open sores, rotting flesh, barf and all sorts of trash.  Plus, when there are people who can’t move—where they are, is the toilet. (Lovely writer’s imagination.)

Into this walks the Healer.  He notices 1 man—1 man out of 5 porches full of people—and asked ‘do you want to be healed’.  I am going to put the man’s answer in today’s slang.

“Uh, duh.  I’m here aren’t I?  Yeah, I’d like to be healed but someone always gets there first.”

Now, there are some things we don’t know about the man. 

1.  Was he born lame or did something happen to make him lame? 
2.  Did someone help him get to the pool or did he have to get there on his own? 

But, there are some things about him that are revealed in his answer.

1. This wasn’t his first time at the pool.  The word always says that he had tried to get into the pool more than once.
2.  Even though he knew someone else would probably get there before him, he kept trying.
3. He was willing to take his eyes off the water and talk to Jesus.

Why is #3 so significant?  Because, he had to watch the pool to see when the water stirred.  Since Jesus zeroed in on him, he could have been being polite by looking at Jesus.  Maybe Jesus stepped between him and the pool and he had to look.  For whatever reason, the man took his eyes off of the pool and answered.  That was his act of faith.  Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk and he did.  Amazing, especially since verse 13 says the man didn’t know who Jesus was.

The Bible records several instances where Jesus healed everyone present.  This is not one of them.  5 porches full of sick people and only 1 man walked away healed.  If anyone else had said ‘I want to be healed’ would Jesus have refused?  Why then did only 1 man walk away?  My theory?  Everyone else was so-o-o focused on the pool. 

God’s simple question to me:  am I so focused on the pool (what or how I expect God to do something) that I miss the miracle giver right in front of me?     

FRONT PORCH HARMONY

I was talking to my friend, Howard, Sunday afternoon about how I love to sing harmony.  His response was something like ‘I never noticed’.  (Just a little sarcasm since we work together in the sound booth at church and he hears it all the time.)  I will take the lead if you just make me but I would much rather find that sweet note that rounds out the sound of harmony.  And I like it tight.  The tighter, the better. 

I talked about Mom’s amazing contra-alto voice and how we would sit on the front porch on those clear spring or fall evenings and sing.  Anola and Ada would take lead, Brenda would take alto and Mom would take 2^nd alto.  That left me hunting a note that harmonized with them.  Sometimes it would be high.  Sometimes low.  And sometimes, I could slide in between Anola and Brenda or Brenda and Mom.  Talking about it made me realize how many and varied were the music lessons I had on my own front porch.  It also made me realize that my music legacy started long before I was born. 

Mom had all kinds of stories and used to talk about how they would dance all night while Bob Wills and the Playboys played Western Swing or Floyd Cramer tickled the ivories.  But one story really says it all.  During WWII, Granny Doucette worked at her Uncle Myron’s sawmill.  There was a German prisoner of war camp close by and they would bring the men over to work at the mill.  One day Granny and Mom were cleaning house and they started singing.  Of course, they didn’t have air-conditioning so all the windows were wide open.  She couldn’t remember the song; just that it was an old hymn.  Granny led and she took alto.  It wasn’t until they stopped singing that they noticed how quiet it was.  Suddenly, applause rang out across the mill.  When they looked outside, all those men were gathered round clapping. 

Yes, that legacy goes back a long way.  And it will live on.  My brother, Harold Wayne (who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket), has a son, Cody Wayne, that is in a Country band, Westbound 21.  They are really breaking out.  (You could have knocked us over with a feather when we found out Cody could really sing.)  I just had a great-niece born with fingers a mile long.  Can anyone say concert pianist?

I have a back porch now and I have been known to crank the radio, open the back door and sing…harmony of course.  Nothing sweeter.

Finally Letting Go

At the East Texas Christians Writer's November meeting, Ms. Joy Chitsey taught us about visual journaling.  At the end of the meeting we got to play with paper, crayons and watercolors.  The assignment was to create something off the top of my head.  A whole page detailing, in picture, what was on my mind at the time. 

Uh, say what?

It was several blank minutes before I picked up a red pen and words poured out of me, surprising me with their intensity.

Am I ready?  Am I?  Not sure.  Don’t know if I can let go

of the iron control my fears demand and let chaos reign. 

That’s what it feels like sometimes.  If I’m in control,

even though I know I will fail, I still know what is going

to happen.  Letting God control things often leaves me

in the dark:  totally uncomfortable.  So…am I ready?  UGH!!!

For someone who has always tried their best to not look like an idiot, letting go of that iron control was not easy.  For instance, I created this blog that next weekend.  It is now March and this is my first post.  I felt like anything I said would be stupid, who would want to read it…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

Knowing you’re going to fail is safe because at least you know what’s going to happen.  And, if you don’t try, you can’t fall on your face.

I know the scriptures say God only wants what’s best for me, He will lead me, He will supply all of my needs but…  Such a HUGE word.  Much harder to get past than any other word I know.  It opens the door wide for fear, insecurities, low self-esteem, haunting past circumstances (you get the picture) to keep me from being or doing.

It has taken me this long to pry my fingers off of that control button.  There have been some surprising results; most of them in my head and heart. 

That’s where true change starts.  Then it spreads out into the circumstances around you.

It’s time to start spreading.