Worth and Wellness

Until you understand that your worth is already determined by the fact of your birth,
everything else is an exercise in propping up a dying tree.
~Carol Brazo~

It is Lent.  The season of reflection, of humility, of thankfulness, of sacrifice, of discipline.  As I sat in service last night, letting the music wash over me and praying for mercy, I thought about what it means to be truly healed.  Healed in mind, healed in body, healed in spirit.

Who does the healing?  What is it that makes us whole?

Is it us?  Is it the work of our hands, the goals we set, and the efforts we make?  Is it God?  I don’t think the answer is all that simple either way.

I posted last month encouraging all of us (I do write for myself as well, it’s a wonderful form of accountability!) to set goals for our wellness.  As I have pondered wellness, and taken two steps forward and one step back (OK, sometimes three steps back) in the pursuit of my own goals, the Spirit brought to mind this passage from John chapter 5.

Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

Why would Jesus ask him that?  Of course the man wanted to be well!  It’s baffling and wonderful the way Jesus gets to the heart of an issue, and to the heart of us as weak and wounded human beings, with only a few words.  The Greek for the word “well” in this passage can also be translated “whole”, “healed” and “sound”.  And as I wrestled with this question that Jesus asked the man, and that He asks you and me now 2000 years later, I had to dig deep to answer.  I am thirty-eight, the same amount of years this man at the pool of Bethesda had been an invalid waiting, waiting, waiting for healing.

Do I want to be well?

For me, I think the answer to that question first lies in realizing, and truly internalizing, the belief that I am inherently worth saving, worth healing, worth loving by a Creator God who purposes to make me whole.

It’s not the work that brings worth, but the worth that spurs me to work.

Jesus saw this man.  He knew his plight.  He recognized his worth.  And from this place of seeing, knowing, and recognizing, Jesus became the bridge across to the healing pool.

All of our goals, and our striving to meet them, only serve to prop up the dying tree, unless we are willing to first look to Jesus  and answer the question He asks even now.  Do you want to be well?

And we will answer, “Yes, I am worth wellness.  I am worth healing.  I am worth the steps it will take to get me to the pool, if only You will be my bridge.”

In what ways do you need a bridge to get you to a place of wholeness?  Is it in confidence?  A push to get started on a routine?  Accountability?  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you your own infirmities (physical, spiritual, emotional) during this Lenten season, and acknowledge those to your Savior.  He wants to guide you, carry you, to a place of wellness.  The distance to the pool may not be as far as you think.

Christine homeschools her four children in central Ohio.  She is a work in progress, learning how to seek wellness at the pool of grace, and work toward all goals from a place of worth in her Savior.  When she finds the time to write, she can be found at Fruit in Season.