I was recently listening to a secular therapist talking about some things she had learned after years of therapy with people. She said that all of us have a story that we tell ourselves and others. And that story becomes the narrative by which our life is shaped.
The story can be something like…I’m not worthy, I didn’t have the right opportunities to succeed, my family didn’t have enough money, nothing works out for me…and so on and so forth.
And in most of these stories people find themselves in a prison of their own making. They have become the victim….of a terrible boss, a tragic circumstance, or even unfaithful friends that have betrayed them.
She says there is a way out of this prison, but that means we might have to do something different. We might actually have to CHANGE.
Most of us don’t like change. We prefer our comfortable life. Even if it is not easy and we don’t like it, it is still familiar to us. And it’s easier for us to stay in that familiar place, than to venture down a path that we do not know.
In John 5, Jesus finds a man near the pool at Bethesda who had been lame for 38 years. He laid by the pool year after year, hoping that someone would help him into the pool when the water stirred so that he could be healed.
When Jesus encountered him, Jesus asked him the pointed question…”do you want to be well?” His response was not the YES we would all expect to hear. But instead, it was all the reasons why he hasn’t been healed all these years.
But Jesus didn’t let him stay in that place of excuses. Instead he commanded him to “Get Up, pick your mat and walk!” (John 5:2-9) And indeed, that is what he did!
The man had a choice at that moment. Would he stay in the comfortable place on the ground as he had done for so many years? Or would he do the more difficult thing, take a risk and maybe find a different outcome than the one he had?
I have been challenged by this concept for the past week. What prison of my own making am I sitting in today? I too struggle with change. Change is hard. Change is scary. Change can be so uncomfortable.
But can I challenge you to lean into the hard things so that you can find a different outcome to the story you have been living so far? Will you take the hand of Jesus and let him walk with you onto that scary, unknown road?
I don’t know what is on the other side of the change you need to make. But at the very least, you can try it and you may find a completely different ending to the story you are stuck in today.
Photo by Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash
