Opportunity in Disguise - Day 130 Month 5-10 Week 19-4
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
Deuteronomy 13,14, Jeremiah 18, John 4:39-5:17
Opportunity in Disguise
Do you wish to get well? It seems like a silly question. The man has been waiting by the pool of Bethesda, probably, for years. He’d been ill for 38 years. The man did not answer Jesus' question. He simply explained how he was frustrated that no one could help him get into the pool when the angel stirred the waters. Jesus simply said “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” Jesus didn’t care what day of the week it was. The man immediately gets up, does what he is told and breaks the sabbath rules. He carried his mat. It’s interesting, the Jews were more concerned that the man carried his mat than his healing.
On my two trips to Israel, I found Saturdays the most fascinating days. Of course, Saturday is the Jewish sabbath until sunset. All of the elevators are in sabbath mode and the restaurants are operated by people who were not Jewish. Patience is required on the Jewish sabbath because the elevators operate all day long, going up and down floor by floor. That way an orthodox Jewish person can ride the elevator and not press any buttons because, of course, touching a button may be regarded as work.
One of the things that made Jesus an enemy of the Jewish leaders was the fact that Jesus did actions on the sabbath. The leaders had lost the spirit of the law and thereby missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah they were waiting for. They were so busy watching the actions that they missed the person.
The other day I was outside working on our barn. When I say barn, I really mean outbuilding that looks like a barn. When we moved here, we were told that someone who lived here had a horse at one time and kept the horse on one side. We have turned one side of the barn into a partial greenhouse and “she shed.” The final task on the barn was to put in a dormer window to add light in the loft. A neighbour came over while I had the roof opened and started to chat. To say I was working against the clock is an understatement. We were expecting rain the next day so closing up the hole in the roof was very important. The neighbour chatted for a bit and then left. I continued my work and in the back of my mind I was a little frustrated because it delayed my work. As Syl and I were discussing the visit a short while later, Syl said “why would you not want to chat with our neighbour? Isn’t he the priority?” Ahh Sylvia, the angel on Fred Flintstone's right shoulder, reminding me what is good and right. Of course she was right. So we potentially have a flood in the “she shed”. It can be cleaned up. Building a relationship with the neighbour is far more important.
That’s what happens when we lose track of our purpose. We miss what God has put before us. It’s what the Jewish leaders did when they saw the mat but missed the healing. I saw a hole in the roof but I should have seen the relationship opportunity. It’s easy to miss opportunities but the more we focus on Jesus and know His heart, the more we will recognize openings to build relationships with those right in front of us. (By the way, I got the hole covered up before the rain started so in essence, the Lord redeemed my time so I could be neighbourly and be blessed in return with extra time and effort I didn’t know I’d received until after the fact - God is so good!)
Have a great day
Steve
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