HomeWord - Mar. 2, 2009

No More Excuses 
This devotional was written by Jim Burns

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 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."
John 5:1-8

I'm convinced that procrastination should be added to the seven deadly sins in the book of Proverbs. There is a great tendency among us human beings to put off making commitments and living life to the fullest. The excuses are abysmal: "When I get out of school, then I'll commit my life to God." "When I get married, then my life will be happy." "As soon as I have some money, my life will change."

In today's Scripture we meet a man who had been sick for 38 years. Jesus asked him the big question: "Do you want to get well?" Notice that he didn't answer the question with an immediate yes, but hesitated and made an excuse. At times we are so much like the sick man: We know what God wants us to do, but we pause and make an excuse.

One morning a vulture was hungry. While flying over the river, he saw a dead animal's carcass floating down the river on a piece of ice. The vulture landed on the ice and began to gorge himself with this delightful meal. He looked up to take a breath of air and noticed that he was 100 yards from a waterfall and that the ice was moving rapidly toward the waterfall. But instead of flying away, he kept eating, though keeping his eye on the waterfall. At 25 yards he decided to take one last bite. Then at 10 yards he took one last mouthful. With only a few feet to go before the falls he tried to fly, but his feet were now frozen to the ice, and he tumbled to his death over the falls.

Don't make excuses! Many a person has wasted his life by putting off the vital long-term priorities for the less important short-term ones.

GOING DEEPER:

1. The man in today's scripture passage was sitting in one spot for thirty eight years. What could he have done to get to the pool instead of sitting there?

2. Is there something in your life that you have been putting off with a feeble excuse? Make a commitment now!

FURTHER READING:
Matthew 9:5,6, Mark. 2:11, Luke 5:24

"From Spirit Wings by Jim Burns,1992. Published by Servant Publications, Box 8617, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48107. Used with permission." 

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