Getting off the mat

The other night I was fighting the temptation to return to the "old ways." I expressed this conflict to my mentor, who has challenged me to be honest with him about this area of my life. He asked me to read Luke 5:17-26.

First let me say that I am always in awe of people who know the scripture well enough to direct a person to a specific passage that addresses their need. It is a great blessing to have someone like this in my life.

The passage is about a paralytic man who is brought by his friends to Jesus as He is teaching. It is not a long passage, but it is powerful just the same. The room where Jesus is teaching is packed with people, including some other religious teachers. Because the paralytic man is lying on a mat, it is impossible for his friends to get him to Jesus. So they do what any good friends would do; they take him up on the roof and drop him through the ceiling.

Jesus is so impressed by their persistence that He tells them their sins are forgiven. Now this pisses off the other religious leaders. They're like "who the heck is this guy thinking he has the power to forgive sins!" So Jesus is like "oh yeah? well how about I just tell this guy to walk too, go ahead buddy get up and walk." So he does.

SO how does this relate to struggling with temptation?

I've been hobbling around this world for at least 15 years dealing with sexual immorality. I know you're thinking, Johnny you're only 25, and yes I got started pretty early. Here's the thing, I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was 5. Now you could debate whether I really had the mental capacity to make a decision like that at 5, but that's what happened. But instead of believing God's version of my story, that everything has been made new and I don't have to sin anymore, that I am FREE from sin, that I can GET UP AND WALK, I've been lying back on the mat. And really it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I got back up off the mat and decided to walk again.

But even though life is so much better off the mat, I still go back and look at the mat from time to time, wondering what it would be like to lay down again. Because it was comfortable to lie on that mat. But LIFE SUCKS when you're crippled and you don't have to be.

I am blessed to have people in my life that point out what a crappy place it is to be stuck lying on a mat and remind me that I can walk.