Do you want to get well?

I'm part of a network of Life Coaches who are Christians and do coaching not just as a career, but a ministry too. This was an amazing post that got me thinking a lot this morning and thought I'd share it with you. So the question of the day is "Do you really want to get well"? I'd love to hear anything that comes up for you after thinking about this.

Much like a life coach Jesus asked the invalid man laying by the Pool of Bethesda a powerful question, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5). Do you want… to change, to be whole, to live out of a different perspective, to no longer be the “victim”, to receive the healing and wholeness God is offering?

After being in that condition for thirty-eight years, this person had excuses to offer as to why he had not already been healed. He was “stuck”. Jesus coaches him by saying "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." And he did! And the man was made whole – healed – and he began living out of a new perspective.

I am challenged by this story. Am I willing to tolerate “the way things are” in my life when Jesus offers me wholeness and a different way of being? I too have lots of excuses why I’m “stuck”. In fact, my list grows longer and longer. Then there are those times when Jesus (often through my coach) asks me "Do you want to get well?" In those graced moments when I do “pick up my mat and walk” I find myself changed. I begin thinking differently, behaving differently, seeing myself differently, and a healing has occurred.

I would confess that sometimes I slip back by the “pool” even though I have already been healed. It is a familiar place to hang out and see myself as less than naturally creative, resourceful and whole. Then my coach invites me to deepen my learning and to forward my action when she asks “So, what are you noticing being back by the pool? What would help you live as the healed person you are? When will you again live as a ‘mat carrier’?”

It is a simple question…"Do you want to get well?" As coaches we follow in the tradition of Jesus by asking the questions and inviting the person to see him or herself differently. By the way, "Do YOU want to get well?"

Written by Jim Robey www.attentionalgrowth.org