Thursday, July
5, 2018
Jesus told
him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
Instantly, the man was healed! He
rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so
the Jewish leaders objected. They said
to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that
sleeping mat!” But he replied, “The man
who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” “Who
said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found
him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or
something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it
was Jesus who had healed him. John
5:8-15(NLT)
I’ve had quite a few wake-up
calls in my 71 years. Some
of the things that happen to us are God’s way of getting our attention. Here are a few of mine:
The Knees – when I was a freshman in
high school the doctor looked at the lumps in my knees and called it something
I couldn’t pronounce – osteochondrosis.
Even today I have to recheck the spelling on that one. Here’s a brief definition:
Osteochondrosis is a family of orthopedic diseases
of the joint that occur in children, adolescents and other rapidly growing
animals, particularly pigs, horses, dogs, and broiler chickens.[2]
So, fine…my first wake-up
call put me in the barnyard! I spent a
whole summer as a 14-year-old not playing baseball or getting off the
couch! But I did get to think a lot
about why bad stuff happens to really good people (in my case…just why bad
stuff happens).
The Bees – put me in the
hospital. I was helping Dad trim some
dead branches out of the oak tree that threatened the back of our house. I picked on the wrong branch; the one with a
yellow jacket nest. Dad was holding the
ladder; he looked up when I started hollering. (Later he told me he couldn’t see my face, it
was covered in yellow and black creatures).
Anaphylactic shock from bee venom closes off your airway. Dad raced his second-born to Doc Bleeden’s
house only half-conscious. Two days in
the hospital was something of a vacation compared to jumping out of an oak tree
to get away from the bees.
The Knee – this time wasn’t mine,
but Harry’s when I was 16. Harry and I played
high school football together. We were
supposed to be on the same team, but this was practice, and Harry’s knee met Russell’s
left side. The spleen split, and I woke
up three days later with tubes everywhere.
Once again…lots of time to think about it.
The VC’s (Vietcong) – As a nineteen-year-old,
Uncle Sam thought I’d be useful in southeast Asia. I would have preferred spending my two-year
Army career in Colorado, or maybe Honolulu, but Vietnam was the order, and this
time I had 11 months and 28 days to deal with heat and people who wanted me
dead. I did get to visit Honolulu, by
the way; Elizabeth and I met there for R&R half-way through my Vietnam
tour.
The wake-up calls of my
teens must have provided enough angst for my parent’s hair to turn white a few
hundred times over.
I’m familiar enough with these
wake-up calls to know how it drives you to think about your mortality – that your
days are numbered, and God has that number.
I’m also familiar enough with them to understand that, one
of those wake-up calls may not do it; sometimes God needs to use a two-by-four
to get our attention. I’ll save that
experience for another day!
For the man Jesus healed – a
paralyzed beggar who had been that way for 38 years, sitting, begging –
sitting, begging, every day for 38 years…one call just didn’t do it. He met the King of the universe, who brought
strength to useless legs, and gave him a new life…and all the man could do is report
him to the human authorities, so he wouldn’t get a ticket for carrying his mat
on the Sabbath!
Russell finds it hard to
condemn this man…I’ve had more wake-up calls than that, and still didn’t get
the message. I’m a lot older now, and a
little bit wiser; I’m learning.
For You Today
Everyone has bad stuff that comes
our way. For me it was bees, knees
(several times), and VC’s. For you…well,
you know those, don’t you?
Have you learned, like I’m
beginning to learn…that God wants your attention…one way, or another? It’s true…wake-up calls are a gift; don’t
waste them.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
