What Do We Want?

Several years ago, I read a book by either Philip Yancey or John Eldridge (I think!  And sorry, I do not have a great memory for what I deem as unimportant details...).  In it, the author wrote about the passage of John 5:1-7, in which a disabled man encounters Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda.  The pool was known for healing and the man had been lying there for 38 years.  That is thirty-eight loooooong years, day after day, hour after hour.  The passage of John states in several Bible translations/versions that Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to get well [or be healed]?"  And Yancey or Eldridge posed an interesting question:(and I paraphrase):  the disabled man had been lying by the pool known for healing for 38 years, hoping and wishing and wanting to be healed; why would Jesus ask something akin to "What do you want?"

That, my friends, is the question of the day: What do we want?

In many decades and in beauty pageants, the common answer was World Peace.  In the early 2000s, more people began to be environmentally-conscious.  Now firmly in the 21st Century, it is the iPad, iPhone, lower gas prices, job security, health insurance, 50" plasma TV, Wii, Kinect, etc.

Whatever temporary satisfaction things bring us, they can never answer the question of "What do we really want?".  I know that deep, deep, deep down, there is something within us that we just cannot seem to get at.  Nothing seems to touch that void, that emptiness.  Nothing we do, buy, say, or experience even comes close to reaching that point.  Heck, we probably do not even know what it is and what we are missing.

What do we want?

There is only one thing I have found to reach that level, and in fact, it happens to be a person, Jesus.  I know that if I let Him fill my heart, mind, and soul, I will experience contentment and joy and satisfaction and peace like nothing words can describe.  I am the first to admit that I am guilty of not letting Him saturate my life.  And I ought ask myself the question of "What do I want?" more often and deliberate on it.  I might actually live the life I want if I did, and get more out of it too!

A couple of verses further in the passage, Jesus Himself heals the disabled man.  Jesus is the source of healing, the source of having a life, the source of every desire we have deep in our souls and the source of fulfilling them.  He knows what we want, and yet He poses the question to us so that we question what we want.

 

 At the end of the day, it is an intimate relationship with Jesus that I want.  What do you want?