January 24, 2012 Now

Now!

Mark 2:3-5 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

ARE YOU a passionate person? If you’re looking for a definition of passion, the men in this story certainly fit “passion”. I always marvel at the paralyzed man’s passion to see Jesus and his friends’ passion to help him. How easy would it have been for them to walk away and say, “Later”. I wonder if the man would have been healed if he said, “Later.”
What about you? Do you passionately pursue Jesus, or do you say, “Later—not today. I don’t feel like it. I’ll get to it when it is more convenient for me.”
Do you know what? You won’t get to it later because you always have an excuse. You have things to do. You listen to distractions. You prefer mindless TV or meaningless conversations because your passion is “later” and not “now”. You know what to do, but you make excuses because you like complaining about what you don’t have instead of passionately pursuing what will change your life. Your soul is paralyzed with, “Later”. The truth of “Later” is that it never comes until you say, “Now”.
How about other areas of your life? Want a better job? Better marriage? Better friendships? Then stop living a paralyzed life. Get up and go where you need to be.

Pause and consider you need to start now.