12 March 2013 - pool your resources

12 March 2013 - pool your resources

“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Are we trying to reach the pool of the LORD's blessings on our own strength?  Where do we see the LORD's blessings?  Are they in the distance, working like clockwork for others, but never quite for us?

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.

We know that this stream is somewhere.  We can hear it trickle.  We can see people full of vitality who drink from it.  Why can't we find it?

Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.

The man who has been ill for 38 years is thirsty for this water.  We ourselves are so very thirsty for this water.  And yet, Jesus asks: “Do you want to be well?”  A question so simple as to be piercing.  Are we even ready for this kind of love?  Do we secretly think we don't deserve it?  If we can have it at all it must be some convoluted process full of hard work, because we certainly don't deserve it now and must earn it.  But it is our thinking which is convoluted here.

As it turns out, it is nothing as abstract or arbitrary as we guessed.  It is nothing vague or esoteric.  The water of life is found in the person of Jesus.  That is why the ill man never ends up going into the pool and yet is healed.

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

The words that flow from Jesus' mouth are filled with life, the same life that flows from his wounded side on the cross.  The nearer we draw to Jesus the more we will hear the roar of the waters of life.

but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.

These are the waters of baptism.  Even if baptism was long ago the graces of the sacrament remain and can completely submerge us with their blessings.  The words of Jesus pour these waters over us anew anytime we listen.  Only these waters can promise to the trees that "their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail."

It comes down to attentiveness to his presence, his proximity, and his power.  We know we are drinking from other streams of impure and poison water when we are pulled away from this presence and chained to the past or paralyzed  by worries about the future.  Let us return to the souce.

God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.

He is near to us.  He is mighty to save.  Let us remain near to him and submerge ourselves in his life-giving word.

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me (cf. Psalm 42:7)

And that reminds me, if you need a miracle in your own life check this out:

http://www.ctkupperroom.org/?page_id=262