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Your Only Option Isn't God's Only Option
08/23/2026
John 5:7-9 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
- Something happens when God sees you.
- Something happens when God steps into your story.
- Something happens when God interrupts your assumption.
The miracle he expected came but in a different form, through a different medium, with a different kind of authority.
- God gives us eyes to notice what is right in front of us.
- God gives us ears to hear the gentle nudges of grace.
- God gives us intellect to discern opportunities that don’t sparkle but still save.
- God gives us intuition to sense His presence in the ordinary rhythms of life.
- Something changes when you stop demanding signs and start receiving invitations.
- Something changes when you stop praying only for miracles and start thanking God for moments.
- Something changes when you realize God has been forming you long before He has been fixing you.
- Something changes when you stop chasing the spectacular and start honoring the subtle.
- Something changes when you stop demanding signs and start receiving invitations.
- Something changes when you stop praying only for miracles and start thanking God for moments.
The Pressure to Be First
08/16/2026
John 5:6-7 “When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man said, ‘Sir, I do not have anyone who will help me. I need somebody who will put me into the pool. When the water starts to move, I try to get in. But someone else always gets in before me.’”
Perspective‑taken reminds us:
- People’s stories shape their responses.
- People’s histories shape their hopes.
- People’s experiences shape their expectations.
Practical Steps for Perspective‑Taken:
Ask About the Story Behind the Struggle: An individual’s present conditions are shaped by past realities. Ask: “What has this person lived through?”
Listen Without Defending Your Assumptions: Listening is not waiting for your turn to speak. It is suspending your assumptions long enough to hear truth you didn’t expect.
Avoid Comparing Their Journey to Yours: Comparison kills compassion. Your path is not their path. Your strength is not their strength. Your access is not their access.
Let Compassion Interrupt Your Theology: Sometimes religious people cling to rules more tightly than they cling to mercy. Allow compassion to correct the parts of us that sound more like religion than Jesus.
Choose Grace Over Assumption Every Time: Grace sees what judgment cannot. Grace hears what assumptions ignore. Grace understands what perspective reveals.
Sometimes You’re Tired of Trying: Because the pressure to be first wears people out.
Maybe There Is Loneliness You Don’t Talk About: Because pressure isolates people—even in crowds.
My Story Is Too Heavy for a Simple Answer: Because pressure makes people feel they must justify why they aren’t “ahead.”
Tell Me How to Be Healed When I Don’t Know Where to Start: Because pressure convinces people that if they don’t start perfectly, they shouldn’t start at all.
At Times I Feel Stuck but Everyone Else Is Moving: Because pressure makes comparison feel like condemnation.
Perspective Taken
08/09/2026
John 5:6-7 “When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man said, ‘Sir, I do not have anyone who will help me. I need somebody who will put me into the pool. When the water starts to move, I try to get in. But someone else always gets in before me.’”
What is perspective taken? It is the practice of stepping outside your own viewpoint and considering how another person experiences a situation.
The message for today is framed around this idea of perspective taken related to a miracle that Jesus performed. The emphasis of the message is not on the miracle,
Competition-
only the first person in the water would be healed.
scarcity, competition, and desperation.
How competition shaped the man’s reality and the reality for many people today.
- Competition for access
- Competition for assistance
- Competition for visibility
- Competition for hope
Why this matters theologically
The pool created a worldview where healing was limited, where God’s mercy was imagined as a race, and where only one person could receive grace at a time.
Many people today live in their own “Bethesda”—places where:
- resources are scarce,
- opportunities feel limited,
- support is uneven,
- and hope feels like something you have to fight for.
Competition becomes a survival strategy, not a spiritual one.
Grace reaches people whose pain came from the outside and people whose pain came from their own decisions.
Compassion Without Conditions
True compassion does not require innocence. It does not demand that people earn our empathy. It does not wait for perfect circumstances or perfect behavior. Compassion says, “Even if it was your fault, you are still worthy of care.” Jesus consistently moved toward people whose wounds were self‑inflicted and toward people whose wounds were inherited. He did not separate the deserving from the undeserving; He simply saw the human being in front of Him.
Compassion as Holy Imagination
Compassion is the ability to imagine what someone has endured. It is the refusal to reduce a person to the worst moment of their story. Compassion is holy imagination—seeing people as God sees them, not as their circumstances define them.
Compassion as Shared Humanity
Compassion reminds us that we are all more alike than we admit. We all needed mercy. We all needed patience. We have all needed someone to see us beyond our mistakes. Compassion is the bridge between our story and theirs. It is the recognition that the same grace that rescued us is available to them.
Perspective‑taken reminds us:
- People’s stories shape their responses.
- People’s histories shape their hopes.
- People’s experiences shape their expectations.
When we find ourselves at our own Pool of Bethesda no matter how long we’ve been there we must recognize that sacred things are happening beneath the surface.
Here are a few realities to pay attention to:
1. Brené Brown “We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.”
This reminds us that life is not designed to be carried solo. It means we are built for connection, support, and shared strength.
- You don’t have to solve every problem by yourself.
- Asking for help is not weakness; it is wisdom.
- We flourish when we let others walk with us
2. Anne Lamott “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”
This is a gentle reminder that rest can reset us.
- Step away when you’re overwhelmed. A pause can restore clarity, calm, sanity, and serenity.
- You are not a machine; you need breath, quiet, and space.
- Renewal often comes from stopping, not striving.
- Confusion does not cancel God’s presence. You are not wandering alone; you are being led in ways you may not yet understand.
3. Barbara Brown Taylor “You are not lost. You are simply on a path you did not expect.”
Life’s detours are not failures. Detours often reveal things you would never have seen on the straight path.
- Confusion can be a classroom. You may be gathering wisdom, resilience, or clarity that will matter later.
- Your story is still unfolding. Being in an unexpected chapter does not mean the story has gone wrong.
- God often works in the places we didn’t plan to be. The unanticipated path may be the very place where grace becomes visible.
- You don’t have to be perfect; you just have to be present.
4. Brené Brown “Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.”
- Showing up emotionally, spiritually, physically is an act of strength.
- Courage often looks like staying in the room, not running from it.
- Being there matters more than having all the answers.
