“Do you want to get well”?- John 5:6

I’m sick right now. Its the kind of sickness that starts as an itch in your throat and slowly sneaks its way into your nasal passageways and brain, leaving you incapacitated in just a matter of days. Now I don’t get sick very often, but there is something extremely interesting that happens to me every time I find myself feeling under the weather.

Fact: Whenever I’m sick, I crave healthy food.

Ask any of my closest friends and family and they’ll tell you the two things I hate most in the world are people not signaling while driving and vegetables (aka healthy foods), and yet when I’m sick I find myself craving salads, fruit juice, fresh veggies and all the things I would normally never want, let alone crave. But for some crazy reason my body knows that these are the things that will make me better.

I think in a lot of ways its the same way spiritually. Its in the moments that we find ourselves “spiritually sick”, runny nose and a broken heart, that we know there is only one thing that will make this all better. We crave what we know is best for us, even if were not sure why. We crave God, his unending mercy, grace, and forgiveness. In the midst of our spiritual sickness, our weary souls cry out to the one who gives true rest.

When Jesus encountered the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda he only asked him one question, “Do you want to get well”? Jesus knew that he was the answer to the man’s sickness. The man responded by asking Jesus to help carry him to the pool after it had been stirred, so he could be cured. But Jesus responded, “Pick up your mat and walk”. There are no shortcuts to getting well.

When I’m sick the only thing that will make me better is healthy food and lots of rest. So why do I think things would be different in the spiritual realm? If I’m sick, there’s Jesus. There is no quick way to get healthy. Jesus isn’t like Airborne, a one-time only, stir into your water, make you 100% better in just ten minutes kind of deal.

No Jesus is the opposite. He’s the healthy diet, the food you crave when you know your sick, the kind of food that if you keep eating it the rest of your life, you will be healthy for the rest of your life.

So I guess the question is “Do you want to get well”?

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