No More Excuses

One of the first things you get when you get booked into a jail is a mat or what the facility will call a bed. When it seems like we’ve been in an unpleasant situation for far too long we try to create some type of bed in the midst of our struggle hoping to find a little piece of comfort. We look for ways to soothe ourselves and to strengthen ourselves. This can include defense mechanisms like isolation, and escape mechanisms like binge eating and projection. Time can chip away at our hope. We may want it but the expectation we had in getting what we wanted can lose its intensity. The struggle can become embedded in the fabric of our being. We can pray daily, meditate on the word, read all the self-help books but an extended stay in the struggle can contradict all our efforts and our hope. In a long- term struggle, we lose the vision of the experience of goodness we once had which causes our hope to lose is elasticity.

Being in the right position doesn’t equate to expectation. Doing all the right things isn’t an automatic representation of our faith. In John chapter 5 there was a man who suffered from a disorder for 38 years who laid by a pool where an angel would come and stir the water at appointed seasons. The first one in was healed. There were also several other people who had various disorders laying by the pool waiting for their opportunity to be healed. When Jesus asked the man who had been suffering for 38 years if he really wanted to get well the man came with his, “of course, but…”. He answered, “…Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am trying to come [into it] myself, somebody else steps down ahead of me” (John 5:7 AMPC). It’s our “of course, but…” that contradicts all our efforts. If we really want to know what our expectation is then we need to listen to what we place on the other side of that “but”. Perhaps we need to be delivered from the “of course, but…” more than we need to be delivered from any physical ailments. It is the “but’s” in our lives that we’ve made a mat out of. “Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your bed (sleeping pad) and walk! Instantly the man became well and recovered his strength and picked up his bed and walked...” (John 5:8-9 AMPC).

Why would we bring something to lay on when we really want to get up? Why do we create exceptions for our expectations? Why is someone’s mistreatment of us enough to keep us down but God’s love isn’t enough for us to get up? When we remove the exceptions from our expectations that we will become well and recover our strength.