FOCUS II

As I was reading John 5:1-15 this morning, the word ‘focus’ kept coming to mind. Out of curiosity I went back to look at what I had written in my blog on a previous time through the book of John. Sure enough, I had written about focus. But interestingly enough my ‘focus’ was in a different place. The man was sitting by the pool called Bethesda where healings regularly took place and didn’t recognize that Jesus was the one who could heal. He wanted Jesus to be the one to push him into the water so he could be healed. (Read more at https://wonderingthrutheword.blogspot.com/2009/08/focus_26.html.) This morning I focused on the Jewish leaders and where they were focused. 

Amazingly, when a man who had been an invalid for 38 years walked by them carrying his mat, they didn’t even seem to notice that he was walking – an invalid for 38 years was walking! They were focused on their law about how much a person could carry on a Sabbath and how far he could go. And this man was violating their law. How dare he carry a mat on the Sabbath?

So I am pondering this and wondering how anyone could be so focused on one thing that they totally miss what is important in a situation. What are the ‘laws’ in our churches that keep us so focused we cannot see the miraculous workings of God in the lives of our fellow human beings all around us? Is it possible we are missing the amazing miracles of God because we are focused on our own projects or agendas? 

Are we annoyed with the child in the Sunday School class who keeps disrupting the flow of the lesson with questions because our goal is to teach the lesson rather than bring children to Jesus? Are we annoyed with the neighbor who keeps coming over to talk when we are trying to get the lawn mowed because we are more focused on our yard work than on building relationship that will lead someone to Jesus? Are we slow to spend time with coworkers who are lower in the system because we are more focused on climbing the career ladder than on building relationships that will lead others to Jesus?

Lord, help me today to be in touch with your heart. Help me to not miss the miracles you are doing all around me because I am too focused on my agenda. I want to be available to participate in your agenda for the day – leading people into your kingdom. Open my eyes to focus where you want me to focus. Thank you. In Jesus precious and holy name, Amen.

Focus

Snap and shoot cameras are great. They are easy to use and usually take good pictures. But sometimes, they focus at the wrong place and the part of the picture you want to be clear becomes blurred and the part that you don’t care about (the weed in the distance) becomes very clear. It usually is not a useful picture and we toss it in the trash.

Some people are easier to communicate with than others. I have already tried to pass pertinent information to someone who is so focused on what they are thinking about the situation that they can’t hear or process what I am saying. I’ve done that a few times myself. I’m so sure of what I know that I can’t hear that what I know is not the whole picture – it has some pertinent information missing. If the communicator persists and sees where the block is and ‘fixes’ the problem by filling in that information, I am able to see what they were trying to say all along.

There was a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He hung out by the pool called Bethesda where healings regularly took place when the waters were stirred. The man had been hanging out there for many years but was never the first into the waters when they were stirred. Jesus walked up to him and asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). Of course the man wanted to be well. But his answer showed Jesus what he was thinking. He didn’t see Jesus as the one who could heal. He saw the pool as the answer to his problem. He just needed help getting to the pool faster the next time the waters stirred. He was probably hoping Jesus would offer to hang out with him and get him in there fast so he could be healed.

Jesus didn’t do the expected, but the unexpected. He told the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” The man didn’t hesitate but got up and walked away.

I wonder what authority must have been in Jesus’ voice that the man would have responded so quickly even though he was focused in another direction. Later on, it becomes apparent the man didn’t even know who Jesus was after he was healed. (John 5:13) The man obviously believed that healing was possible. That was why he hung out by the pool all those years. He obviously took Jesus at his word and got up and walked. Yet he had no idea who had healed him.

I wonder how many times Jesus acts in my life and the lives of others and we say to others, “I don’t know how it happened. It just did.” We are so focused on the problem and our solution that when Jesus gives us a solution, we miss where it came from.

I wonder why Jesus picked that particular man – an invalid for 38 years. And why didn’t he make a big deal about it with crowds gathered around so they could see his healing power in that moment. Wouldn’t more people believe in him if they saw him do it?

Later on, Jesus met up with the man again and told him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” By then the man had some time to get the cramp out of his brain and think about it and recognized that it was Jesus who had healed him. “The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” John 5:15

Once he recognized the source of his healing, he was free to testify to others that it was Jesus who healed. When Jesus brings healing into my life, do I recognize it? When I do, how quick am I to testify to what Jesus has done for me.