pick up your mat and walk

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (John 5:8) 

In life with Jesus, there is always a story we must leave behind and a story we are invited to step into.  The problem is that we can’t have one without the other.  In order to accept the invitation to a new way of being and seeing, we must first be willing to leave behind the old.

The question then becomes: What does that mean for us today?  What story is God calling us to leave behind and what story is us inviting me to step into?  And will we?

Lord Jesus, forgive me when I am resistant to what you want to do in and through me.  Give me the strength and the courage and the grace to “Get up!  Pick up my mat and walk.”  Whatever that may look like.