For too many years I have been…
sitting, laying, waiting;
Exactly for what, I know not.
Thinking maybe tomorrow my dream will arrive.
Feeling, if I had only hoped, trusted, believed more. Had more faith.
Maybe if I had behaved better, been different, smiled more, did more.
I told myself, things then might have been better.
So much disappointment, frustration, and strife.
Looking back I'm sure it was me having hope in hope alone...
Nothing really to do with...
- "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done"
- “To gain your life you must lose it.”
- “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”
- "The just shall live by faith."
- “Count it all joy my brethren when you fall into divers temptations.”
- “In acceptance lieth joy.”
No, I lived with my mind and heart filled with I hope...
- this will get better...,
- tomorrow will bring change...,
- I hope things will be different.
- Surely they will, they must.
Yet, always awaking to a similar day.
Then one morning, in my way,
came the story about a man who lay
By the sheep market pool ("Bethesda" that is, in the Hebrew tongue).
There he lay, waiting for an angel to stir the waters,
so he could make his way into the pool….
The first one in the pool, you see, would be made whole,
healed from all their infirmaties.
The man there laid for thirty-eight long years,
...Waiting, hoping, believing that things would be better, in time.
Laying there hoping someone would put him in,
Thinking, tomorrow will bring a change, or
Things will be different, surely they will, they must. . .
The Great Physician, the Healer of all mankind
Stopped before the man one day,
He simply asked the man who laid,
the hoping man, the desirous man…
Do you want to be made whole? "Yes," the man said.
Now, I do not know if it was a quiet, “Yes, only if I could,”
or a loud “YES! man, of course. Can't you see I hurt!"
But none the less, excuses were made... looking up he said, “no one cares;” “no one will help me, they just go about their business as if I were not even here;” “they really don’t care, how could they care?;” “if they did, they would help me get in those waters."
Nothing said by the man phased the Healer...
He just looked him square in the eye and said to the man... GET UP and WALK...
Immediately, the man rose... and walk he did.
and after laying by the waters all those years he found
the waters had nothing to do with his becoming whole and free from his
pain, his sickness, his despair.
It was because of him doing "nothing" that put him in this way.... not looking to the One who knew him before he was formed in his mother's womb and had filled his lungs with the very breath of life.
Nope, it was just him having hope in hope that someday something would change.
My time for waiting,
...Thinking tomorrow my dream might arrive.
...Hoping someone would come along and make everything alright.
...Feeling, if I had only hoped, trusted, believed, more.
...Maybe if I had behaved better, been different, smiled more, did more,
has come to an end.
I have now have heard the words... GET UP, WALK...
So doing the next thing is what I plan to do.
I will depend on "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." For without Him, I know I can do nothing.
I will take one step today, my hand in His; forget yesterday; and let tomorrow stay in its place.
My hope and trust will be in God alone. I will walk by faith, and know that my situation is under His watchful providential power and care. I cannot walk by sight of what I currently see, the situations before me.
My dreams are all filled with Him… His imminent return, His power at work in me, and His protection, guidance, and deliverance.
In Him alone do I put my hope and trust.
The disappointment, frustration, and strife I have faced,
Now dissipates with knowing I make my plans, yet God directs my steps.
It is Him alone who will keep my pace and help me face
…all that comes my way.
But the best part is I will be walking along in my journey and not stuck waiting, lying beside the sheep market pool... disappointed, hopeless, frustrated, and filled with pain and strife.
