Getting Unstuck - Healing for the Places That Still Ache

“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’ ‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘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.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” (John 5:5-9, NLT)

“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13, NLT)

“I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.” (Psalm 40:1-2, NLT)

We all get stuck. Stuck in traffic, stuck in relationships, stuck in habits that don’t serve us. Stuck in roles we didn’t choose or commitments we wish we hadn’t made. Sometimes life feels paralyzing, like there’s no way forward. I’ve met so many people weighed down by addiction, betrayal, self-harm, and cycles of heartbreak, and the reality is, most of us are stuck in some way.

The first step toward freedom is recognizing why we’re stuck. In John 5, we meet a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Day after day, he lay by the pool, hoping the waters would heal him. When Jesus showed up, this man didn’t ask Him for help. He was so fixated on what he believed could change his life that he missed the One standing right in front of him—the Healer who had helped countless others.

Sound familiar? How often do we fixate on the one thing that might make things better, whether it’s a relationship or a job or a new body or . . .? This man at the waters was no different than you and me. What’s remarkable is how Jesus engaged this man. He asked, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6, NIV). Jesus wanted the man to want healing as much as He wanted to give it. And notice the man did not actually answer the question.

Jesus then gave him a clear, simple command: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8, NIV). Jesus was inviting this man to participate in his own restoration. Jesus wasn’t asking the man to earn his healing; He was asking him to risk moving.

Getting unstuck always requires moving.

Sometimes it looks like calling a doctor or a therapist. Sometimes it looks like meeting with someone you need to apologize to. Sometimes it looks like going back to church and trusting God can heal that hurt. Sometimes it looks like taking agency over your dreams or your health. Sometimes it looks like picking up the mat you’ve been lying on for almost forty years.

Jesus is right by your side. He is standing next to you and asking, “Do you want to get well?” If your answer is yes, will you move in ways you haven’t moved in years?

Reflection:

• What would it have been like to sit there for almost forty years seeing other people get the healing you wanted?
• How do you feel stuck, and how has being stuck caused more stuckness?
• What do you think the difference is between wanting to get well and participating in getting well?

Prayer:

Jesus, thank You for meeting me where I feel stuck. Help me to not just want to get well but to participate in the ways You ask me to. Help me to pick up the mats of my life that I have gotten way too accustomed to lying on. Thank You that you want my healing even more than I do. Amen.