Kedo Peseyie
Birthdays are not actually the special events we look forward to. Sometimes we even secretly wish that they would never come because no one is getting younger. About three months back I celebrated (or observed!?) another birthday. Knowing that people usually ask you stupid questions on birthdays, I was prepared. But I wasn’t prepared when someone asked me, “What’s the easiest thing you’ve done in your life?” If I was ten years younger I might have said, “Passing the HSLC, or playing a concert”. But I wasn’t young enough to be that naïve and vain, nor old enough to say, “That’s a stupid question”. Unfortunately I am in my early thirties where looking back at life seem painful and looking forward fearful. But the answer is simple. The easiest thing I’ve done in my life is to give excuses and blame it on others and circumstances.
I remember the early days when I first entered the ministry. I suffered from an almost perpetual toothache. This sickness became an excuse for refusing ministry opportunities. The toothache was more bearable than facing the tension of preparing and delivering a sermon. Now, that’s what I call conveniently suffering.
The paralyzed man in John chapter 5 will tell you how true this is. The bible tells us that he had been in that condition for thirty-eight years. The setting where this incident took place is the pool of Bethesda where at regular intervals Angels would come from heaven and stir up the water in the pool. Any sick person who could enter the water first would be healed. This paralyzed man had been trying to enter the water for thirty-eight years.
Thirty-eight years! He had learned to live with it. Surely he had survived on donations and charity, as he could not work. The pool, which was always teeming with people, had become his home. Until one day Jesus comes along and asks this stupid question (that day was probably his birthday), “Do you want to be healed?” Of course he does, one would think. That’s why he was there all these years. Have you ever entered a hospital and asked a patient in ICU, “Do you want to get better?”
But the fact is this: sometimes suffering can become very convenient and an excuse for failing to stand up and face life’s challenges.
Interestingly the man does not reply with an affirmative-Yes, I want to be healed, but laments, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” A paraphrase of this verse could go something like this, “Oh poor me, sir, nobody wants to help me when the water is stirred. You see, the problem is that ‘someone else’, he is always smarter than I am. He always gets in the way!”
Jesus’ command to this man was not just a command for physical healing, but I believe Jesus was confronting his attitudes and challenging his convenient relapse to lethargic self-pity by excusing himself from the realities of life. Any healing or transformation that can really make a difference must include the transformation of the body, the mind, and the soul, and a courageous confrontation of ourselves and our situation. That’s why many preachers and pastors recommend physical exercise for the body, deliberate study of scripture for the mind, and prayer and meditation for the soul, all having equal importance and implications in the life of the young disciple. Excusing oneself from any one of these potentially affects the others, thus eliminating the possibility of a healthy, wholesome and ever growing spiritual life. Remember we are talking about a Christian present in the body, active in the mind, alive in the soul, and participating in the affairs of the world.
To conclude, if excuses would be the easiest thing, then I guess confronting the realities of life would be the hardest thing and definitely the most rewarding outcome and experience anyone could ever get. We often say Christians are above the circumstances of life, and most of us live there where beliefs, faith and sermons fail to define daily life. And because we consider ourselves as above we often come up with naïve, apathetic and simplistic solutions to real life situations. But God has placed us within these circumstances and He expects us to fight it out rather than live our whole lives on painkillers.
Granted, everyone needs a little encouragement to move forward (for some a kick in the butt), but you don’t have to wait thirty-eight years for Jesus to come and say, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”. He has already spoken, in case you were listening. You can walk now.
The story does not end there. Jesus took the trouble to find that man again and warn him, “Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you”. It will do us well to take heed too.
