Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Choice to Be Made Well
Kay Arthur's powerful story from the streets of Jerusalem introduces us to a beggar who deliberately maintained his infected leg wound to receive charity from tourists. Despite having access to medical care, he chose to remain unwell because he had built his entire livelihood around his injury. This modern parallel to the biblical account in John 5 – where Jesus encounters a man who had been ill for 38 years – raises a profound question for all of us.
Jesus asked the man beside the pool of Bethesda if he wanted to be made well, he presented him with a choice: continue in familiar suffering or embrace healing that would require life transformation. Today, that same question echoes in our lives. Have we, perhaps unconsciously, chosen to remain unwell in certain areas because wellness would demand significant change? Have we built identities around our limitations, wounds, or struggles because they've become comfortable?
God promises to walk alongside us through every change, creating something new within us that surpasses what we leave behind. But the choice remains ours – do we truly want to be well? Are we ready to embrace healing in every area of our lives—emotional, physical, and spiritual—even if it means releasing what has become normal?
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Good morning everyone. Today we have a story for you from Kay Arthur. Now this story is set in modern times, but I am certain that you'll recognize its connection to Jesus' ministry as recorded in John, chapter 5. Here's how Kay tells the story.
Speaker 1:As I recently came out of the old city, into the noise of the lumbering buses jammed to the doors with Arabs and to the honking of irate impassioned cab drivers, as I felt the bright sunshine which had been shielded by the walled, crowded, narrow streets of the old city, a man sitting on the ground caught my attention. He was happily conversing with other beggars until a foreign tourist came by and at that point all conversation ceased and a hand was lifted as Dark Eye silently pled for coins. The other hand pulled up a pant leg to make sure that the already exposed ulcer bright pink, glazed over with white purulent patches glistening in the sun was not missed, she said. My nurse's heart brought my feet to a halt. I wanted to bend down and shield the open wound from the dust sent flying by the traffic scurrying through the gate. His leg needed tending. It should be washed, medicated and dressed by someone who cared. Unattended, it would only eat away until it reached the bone and then he could lose the leg. Arrested by this plight, I stopped to gaze at his leg and to look into the darkness of his eyes until my friend gently took me by my elbow and propelled me toward our destination. I was a tourist, you see, and did not know about these things.
Speaker 1:She then proceeded to tell me that this man did not wish to be made well. He made his living from his wound. No need to confront the complexities of responsibility as a citizen of Israel when one could merely sit down in the dust and dirt of Jerusalem and receive pity along with a few shekels. My wounded beggar could have been healed. The hospital doors were open to him and medicine was available, but he did not wish to get well. As I looked back in curious fascination, I caught one last glimpse of someone less than what he could have been.
Speaker 1:The man in John 5 had been sick for 38 years. We do not know how long he had been laying beside the pool of Bethesda. All we know is that when Jesus passed by and asked him if he wished to be made well, he had to make a choice Either he could continue in his normal habit of life or he could relinquish it for healing. So this morning, suppose, just suppose for a moment, that Jesus asked you if you wanted to be made well, to be healed emotionally, physically, spiritually, to have tremendous changes be made in your life by the grace and power of God. What would you answer? Would you openly embrace the changes he made for you and be willing to leave behind all of the things that held you back, even if they have become normal to you? What would you choose? And if making changes sounds scary to you, it shouldn't be.
Speaker 1:The Bible reminds us that God is with us and that he's creating something new in each one of us. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17,. It says anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone and a new life has begun. Are you ready to embrace all of the things that God has for you? Are you wanting and willing to be well in every area of your life, even if it means you have to let go of some of the things that you are currently hanging on to. So, my friends, let's finish with the question we started with. Do you want to be well Well in every area of your life? Well, well in every area of your life? God has the answers for it all, and he loves you and he is with you right now and he will guide you. I hope you have a wonderful day, my friends. Take care, keep the faith and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right, with Danny Mac.
