Mats Matter

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 5:8-9 (NIV)

After 38 years of disability, the invalid man near the pool of Bethesda was finally healed. He was healed by Jesus, who told him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk.

In reading this story, I am struck by the importance that was placed on picking up the mat. Why did Jesus tell the man to pick up and carry the symbol of his past?

Then I saw that every one of us every day should carry the symbols and signs of the changes in our lives that are the result of God's power.

That mat was a symbol to everyone who saw it, and its message was this: “No matter how long your condition has confined you, no matter how restrictive your life has been, no matter how negative your human circumstances, when you encounter Jesus, He has the power to bring change.”

Here is the lesson that I learn from the mat: Don't be mad at the things you have to carry. They are reminders of struggle—heavy weights of pain, limitation, heartbreak, betrayal, and mistakes from the past that we are not to forget too easily. We are not to cast them off or stop talking about them or stop owning them.

The desire to let these things go and put them in the past and never bring them up again is understandable. But these things are indicators of positive change, markers of spiritual progress, images of healing, and signs of personal maturation.

I'm trying to tell you that not one weight you carry, not one struggle you manage, not one scar you bear should you be ashamed of, because each of them is an indicator of how much you've changed thanks to Jesus.