What Do We Really Want?--by Linden Malki

Life is full of choices--even when it doesn't look like it.   In the chaos of World War II, French writer Albert Camus wrote that the first question we must ask is if we really want to live. His philosophy of life was not Christian, but is one that we see in our current world. He does conclude that one does need to choose to live, even if it seems absurd. This brings us to the question that Jesus asked a sick man who had been hanging out at the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years.  Apparently he had been taken care of enough to be there every day, and been given  food, but nobody had cared enough to wait with him for the water to be stirred into what was believed to be a healing mode. When Jesus asked if he really wanted to be healed, his response was "I can't..."  Jesus response to that was simple: "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"   There is a very similar story in Acts 3, when Peter and John were in the same area on the same day of the week, saw a lame beggar at the gate of the Temple, and

told him the same thing, only with one addition: "We don't have money, but this is what we do have: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" And the same thing happened, again with one addition, Peter took him by the hand and helped him to stand. And the next thing everybody saw was the lame man not just walking, but dancing and praising God.  And the same thing happened next: Temple authorities came and made a fuss about someone being healed on the Sabbath.

The man healed by Jesus didn't know who he was--this was at the beginning of his ministry--but as soon as he found out, he scurried to the authorities and pushed the "blame" onto Jesus. Peter and John, in similar circumstance, made no question about where their power came from,  stood up to the crowd and preached about Jesus and His resurrection. When the Temple guards arrived, they were jailed for the night and brought up to the Sanhedrin the next day. The temple authorities had been astonished by Jesus at 12, worried by Him 20 years later, and then found out that He wasn't finished with them yet.  Another 30 years later, they coudn't figure out what to do with Jesus' brother James and his growing fellowship, and pitched him off the Temple parapet. In less than ten years, the Temple itself was destroyed.

Two thousand years later, the world still hasn't figured out how to deal with Jesus and His people. There are still those who are trying to figure out why they're on this earth and what to do next, and those who know who created them, whose Hands they are in, and know that we don't need to know anything except Whose we are, and what we are called to do in His name.
e