Listening

"When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be healed?' The sick man answered, 'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Get up, take up your bed, and walk.' And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked" John 5:6-9.

A friend of mine was talking about the full breadth of this passage earlier tonight and this particular part struck me as I read it in her car. It doesn't take long to realize that most people have a problem with, or simply don't listen. Everyone has a different mindset about how questions should be answered, to what extent and with how much depth. It's interesting if you think about it how often people don't respond well to the long answer, or a different answer that expected, to their question. But mainly how we are often prone to not even answer, or at least not directly, many questions we are asked. I was thinking just this morning about how much more productive many conversations would be if people specifically answered the question assigned or asked. We instead beat around the question, answer with a story or make an excuse. Now those things are not necessarily bad all the time, but as I read this passage in John, my mind filled with empathy for Jesus. Jesus asks a simple question- Do you want to be healed? The man does not answer, a simple yes would have sufficed, but instead responds with an excuse and a complaint as to why he hasn't been healed. I realize he didn't know it was Jesus, but it makes me realize how often we don't really listen to people's questions or statements. We respond according to what we want/need to say aloud to someone or simply to fill the empty air with words. In conversations I am sometimes prone to think 'just give me an answer to the question I asked' and not tell me some circular answer that takes forever.

Now I'm a big fan of story time and I love to stay connected with what's going on in friends' lives. But I hate it when people don't listen. But what's interesting is Jesus doesn't get mad. Jesus immediately heals him. It's not because he had great faith or because he did a great deed, Jesus just recognized this guy's humanness and desire and healed. I often wish people were totally honest with me. I think Jesus' silence speaks volumes in many instances and probably taught much better lessons than Him possibly saying something. His prayer life This man didn't really listen to Jesus, but Jesus loved him anyway.