“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” John 5:7
There is a time to understand why we are the way we are.
There is value in looking honestly at our wounds, our history, our disappointments, and the circumstances that shaped us.
Understanding can bring clarity. It can help us name what happened, recognize unhealthy patterns, and extend grace and forgiveness to places in ourselves and others we once misunderstood.
But explanation has limits.
Jesus asked the man at Bethesda if he wanted to be made whole. The man responded by explaining why he was still lying there.
No one helps me.
Someone always gets there before me.
I cannot reach the water in time.
His explanation may have been completely accurate. After thirty-eight years, he had plenty of evidence supporting it.
But Jesus did not argue with his explanation.
He simply said, “Rise.”
There comes a moment when understanding why we are here is no longer enough. Eventually, the question changes from “Why am I this way?” to “What am I going to do with what God is saying to me now?”
An explanation can help us understand our past without being allowed to govern our future.
We can become so committed to explaining why we cannot move that the explanation itself becomes another form of paralysis.
There is a difference between understanding your wounds and building your home inside them.
There is a difference between acknowledging what happened to you and allowing what happened to you to determine what happens next.
Maybe Jesus is not asking you for another explanation.
Maybe He is speaking to the part of you that has explained itself long enough.
Rise.
Take up what has carried you.
And walk.
Your explanation may tell the truth about how you got here, but it does not get the final word about where you go from here.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, give me wisdom to understand my past without becoming imprisoned by it. Show me where explanation has become excuse, where reflection has become avoidance, and where I have continued describing what You are calling me to leave. Help me receive the truth of what happened while also receiving Your word concerning what can happen next. When You say rise, give me the faith to stop explaining and start walking. In Jesus’ name, amen.
