HOW TO GET UNSTUCK (Back to Sunday School Series)

"You going in?" My husband asks.

"Nah, just did my hair. You go ahead," I say because I'm a “stay-on-the-shore” kind of gal.

But deep down, I want to take the plunge.

"You going in?" My grandbaby asked.

"Oh honey, Grandma's not a very good swimmer."

But I do the dog paddle just fine.

"Lord, what's wrong with me?" I sob into my journal, safe on the beach towel, while others splash around unafraid.

"Get up. Go in," Jesus says. Because He wants us to start living today.

Maybe there's a chaise lounge you’re stuck in.

Maybe you dipped a toe in and decided you're not meant for big water.

But Jesus is calling you and me to so much more. 

Staring at the water won't change you, but seeing Jesus will.

That's what happened to the paralyzed man in John 5.

He spent 38 years hoping for his life to change. When Jesus found him, he was lying by the pool of Bethesda, a place where desperate people waited for something to stir.

"Would you like to get well?" (v6) Jesus asked the man.

Loosely translated, the paralyzed man replied, “Are you serious, Jesus? I've tried to get my act together my entire life, but something always gets in the way. This is who I am." 

Jesus didn't pat the paralyzed man on the hand and say, "That's OK." 

Instead, He gave the man some impossible marching orders:

"Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat, and go on home!" (v8)

Jesus had created this man to be a swimmer, a runner, a “dance in the rain” kind of guy, not an invalid. And Jesus alone had the power to transform him. 

The stunned man had a choice: Believe and live, or come up with another excuse.

That man couldn't roll his mat up quick enough. He had a lot of living to do.

And so do you.

One step toward Jesus is further than a million laps on your own. He takes you from death to life and then calls you to walk on water.

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." (v24)

So don't waste another minute on the shore wishing things were different. 

Believe. Receive. Stand up. Jump in. 

You've got a lot of living to do.