Day 147: Reaching Out

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath.  The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."  He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"  John 5:8-11

This story is filled with so many ugly details that it fits right into today.

There's a pool with healing powers only for the first person who makes it in.  One paralytic has been waiting thirty eight years to get into the pool, but is always too slow.  Jesus sees him and heals him.  The Jewish leaders tell the man that he is sinning because he is able to walk and take his bed.

When this story is written down on paper, or even read aloud in church or even on our phones (or whatever audio device), we can see how things are messed up.  What gave the leaders the audacity to call out that man from walking with his bed, which was probably stained from his underside and all of that sweat, smelling and probably falling apart?  They had come up with different interpretations of the Law of Moses to the point where things were getting ridiculous.  A man who wanted to celebrate that he was made well, a man who went straight to the temple to worship God after having encountered God Godself, was accused of breaking the Sabbath.  That's just messed up!

Yet, what do we do when we're walking around on the streets, or driving around, and see people begging for money?  The people walking around with their shopping baskets filled with empty cans or clothes or blankets?  The people who shout Alleluia in church?  The person not dressed up enough for an occasion?  What do we tell those who aren't making as much as we are?  What sort of rhetoric do we use when we're talking about the politics in our countries?  How do we treat the people of different genders, race, sexual orientation, creed, or anything else?

We can judge people as soon as we see them, making our decision based off a second of an encounter.  Yet, each person has her/his story.  We can't just dismiss everybody into our own boxes.  What if they had encountered Jesus for the first time that day?  What if they are Jesus?  What if we are Jesus for them?

We have no right to judge.  We only have one thing that we must do, and that is to show love.  We can show everybody around us love, for that is what God has shown us.  God is healing us every day.  We should be thankful for that by showing that same love for those around us.  We need to get excited when the family of God grows, when a new piece of God's Kingdom is built.  Instead of judging those around us, we must always be thankful.

Day 139: Accepting Change

"He who rejects instruction hates himself, but he who gives heed to reproofs loves his soul."  Proverbs 15:37

This comparison cannot be any more extreme than this: hate and love.

Why is this necessary?  Well, if we think about this, it applies to so many different aspects of our lives.  In a general sense, we need to be willing to learn from everything, especially our own mistakes.  We can go forth in our lives doing things the same way we've always done them, but if that is harmful, we only bring ourselves further and further into damage.  When we accept change in our lives, we can turn away from anything that harms us and become better people.

In a spiritual sense, this is important because it is our whole life we are talking about.  Jesus speaks to us every single day.  It's only when we accept the change that Jesus calls for us to do that we will be able to become better people.  Accepting that change will involve not just a confession by word, but also a change in how we live our lives.  We need to live out that change.

In school, I was taught that doing drugs was bad for the body.  It's bad because each use will continue to damage the body, and if done enough times (the amount depending on the individual) it would lead to an addiction, which was very difficult to turn back from.  We learned to point our judging fingers towards those who used drugs.  That's an extreme case, but it still explains this proverb to me, because it's very easy to look at other people and see how they're damaging their lives with their own habits.  We can see when our friends are in destructive relationships, dead end jobs, or making bad decisions for their health.  We say to ourselves, "they must truly hate themselves."  This proverb, though, calls us to point that finger back at ourselves.  We need to investigate all that we do.  Are we willing to accept change?  It's easy for us to point out that necessity in others, and since we already can, can we do that to ourselves?  Can we truly live out that change?

The only way we can love our soul is by accepting and living the change that Jesus calls us to do.  It will involve a commitment, but we have already made that commitment in our baptism that we remember every time another member is added to our great family of baptized people.  We have to remember that we are in this world, constantly resisting the devil, fighting the good fight.  We need to stop hating ourselves and, instead, start bettering ourselves.