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.
Finding Purpose in Life
I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me
Psalm 57:2 (NLT)
You may not know the name of Johnson Oatman, Jr. He was born in New Jersey and grew up in the home of a really gifted singer. His dad was such a gifted singer, in fact, that his name and reputation made him like a celebrity in his local context.
Like his dad, young Oatman could sing too, but his gift was not as sharp. His instrument was not as finely tuned as his father’s, and this fact started to affect his emotional health.
He questioned, “Where do I fit in life?” He knew that his father had a superlative gift and that his own gift hadn’t risen to the same height—and probably never would. He didn't want to live in the shadow of his father, but wanted his life to have its own meaning and purpose.
One day as he sat in his despondency, trying to muse and ponder what his future was going to be, instead of humming one of the songs he had been singing, he took pen to parchment and started scoring the song. That was a new beginning for Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Released from his life was a gift more remarkable than his father’s—because while the father had a gift to sing, God gave the son the gift to write. And because God gave the son the gift to write, we have these words:
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
None else could heal all our soul’s diseases,
No, not one! No, not one!
Jesus knows all about our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
Young Oatman wrote more than 3,000 hymns, and no hymnal is complete without including some of his insightful writings. We as believers have been immensely blessed because a young son decided that instead of giving up and sidelining himself, He would call on God to show him where he fits in life.
Cry out to God today, and continue to do so until he fulfills His purpose in you.
He Sees You
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Luke 13:10-13 (NIV)
Luke describes a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 long years. She was bent over and could not straighten herself up. She was imprisoned in this condition, and people regarded her as occupying existence on the fringes of culture. She was an outcast, a pathetic woman to be shunned or ignored.
She surprisingly found enough strength and tenacity, however, to attend the synagogue on a Sabbath day when Jesus was teaching. No doubt she and many others present enjoyed listening to Him teach, spellbound as He opened the eternal Word of God and taught them the riches of salvation, the free gift of grace, and the enormous love that God has for all creation.
In that crowd, this woman was bent over, struggling to keep her head up enough to even look at Jesus. Maybe from time to time, when she could catch a glimpse of Him, she noticed that Jesus was also looking at her. When the lesson was over, Jesus looked at her one more time and, in a clear voice, asked her to come over to Him. Struggling to make her way to Jesus, she finally presented herself to Him.
And this is what the Master said to her: “Woman, you are free from this ailment.” The original language implies this: “You are free now and you will remain free from this condition. You are free permanently.”
Immediately she could stand straight, free of the pain that had been in her life for 18 years. The Bible says she began praising God as a result.
In reading this story, I couldn't help but think that long before the woman was asked to present herself, she must have been lifted and blessed and inspired and encouraged by simply being noticed. Her first liberation was that, in a place where she had grown accustomed to being ignored, finally somebody noticed her.
Jesus could not be present in that place and ignore her. Jesus was going to do what others had failed to do or chose not to do. He was going to notice her, acknowledging both her condition and her value as a person.
Today you may feel that no one knows—or no one cares—what you are going through. But Jesus sees your condition, He values you, and He wants to do a mighty work in your life.
Your Life, His Glory
From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Roman 11:36 (NIV)
Sometimes we look at the painful or difficult circumstances in life and we wonder why.
Why, God, have you made my life this way? Am I being punished for some sort of sin in my life?
When I think of the man who was born blind, and Jesus’s disciples assumed it was the result of his sin or his parents’ sin, I remember that Jesus’s answer reveals an important truth for our lives as well. Jesus said that the man was born blind so that the glory of God could be revealed in His life—and then Jesus healed the man.
Here’s the truth that we should meditate on: Sometimes you are made to go through things because it really isn’t about you—apart from the fact that God chose to use you to demonstrate something He wants to show or to say something He wants to communicate.
Faith adds this additional reality: that your whole life is really for the glory of God.
Many times, the thing you are going through in life is not a judgment because you did something wrong. Like the man born blind, God doesn’t see you as the world sees you.
- You aren’t twisted or an outcast.
- You aren’t incapable or insufficient.
- You aren’t minimized or non-essential.
- You aren’t cursed or left out of God's goodness.
You are just being positioned to show people that God can work a miracle and that God can turn conditions around, defying all human explanations.
Maybe your circumstances aren’t about you. Maybe they are about showing the world His glory.
To Display God’s Works
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:1–3 (NIV)
The blind man could probably hear Jesus and His disciples approaching. When he heard one of them ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” he immediately knew who they were talking about.
The disciples made a theological assumption that somebody in this man’s bloodline must have grossly disobeyed God for this man to be born blind. Either that, or the man himself deserved punishment for some sin.
But Jesus makes a strange statement in response to their perplexing question: “This man was born blind so that God's work might be displayed in his life.”
I wonder how many of us could appropriate that answer in our lives. I wonder how many of us could embrace the idea that perhaps our journey has had twists and turns, highs and lows, experiences and encounters that could never have unfolded any other way because God wanted to display Himself through our circumstances.
Our lives are shaped, suited, and situated to best reflect the work that God wants to display. This ought to certainly expand how we accept, embrace, and steward some of the conditions of our lives. We can find healthy emotional space for some things if we accept that it might not be about our ease and comfort, but about God’s power and work.
Maybe I need to stop thinking that the conditions I’m in are a curse or a punishment, and maybe I should hear Jesus when He says, “You haven't been cursed, nor have you been judged. You are not deficient. You're not inadequate. You haven't been overlooked or lessened. You are not skipped over or viewed as less than.”
Your journey, the space you occupy, the struggles that are unique to you, the stresses and conditions that you would so prefer not to have—all of these are gifted to your life so that, through your life, God may show His power, demonstrate His work, extend His will, and invite people into His way.
