LIVING LIFE JOYFULLY

Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” Luke 5:18-20
“Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat and go home!” And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. Luke 5:23-25
In these verses in Luke we find the story of a paralyzed man with friends who are determined to help restore his health and his joy. They come carrying him, to lay him before Jesus – the true Healer and Joy Giver. When they find they are unable to bring their paralyzed friend into the house where Jesus is because of the crowd, they are not deterred. They decide to take their friend up on the roof to lower him down after cutting a hole in the roof tiles. I do not know about you, but I wish I could have heard that conversation. You see, I have been the, ‘man on the mat’. And as the, ‘man on the mat’, the last thing I want to do is draw attention to myself. I get more than enough attention just by being, ‘on’ the ‘mat’. I really, really, do not want any more attention, thank you very much. Now, placing myself here...in this situation...When my friend came with the idea to bring me to the Great Healer – Joy Giver, it did not take much convincing to get me to agree to load up on my mat for the ride to see Jesus. But when we get to the house, oh no, The Crowd! And now these wonderful friends have this harebrained idea to drag me up on the roof? And lower me through a hole they cut in the ceiling? Nope. Not going to happen. I can already feel everyone staring at me. I know people stare at me because I’m on this mat, oh, I do not want to give people another reason to stare at me.
Two things to recognize here. First, one of the biggest Joy Stealers is Chronic Illness. Illness of any kind steals our joy and makes us forget that we are made in God’s image. Not only is our body hurting from the illness; our self-image, because of the effects of the illness is very low and it is very difficult to find our joy. Chronic Illness causes many different and difficult changes to the body. Since my illness the fluctuations in my weight alone have been difficult on my self-image (as I know they are on many of my, ‘Living with Pain’ friends). Also every time Illness causes me to miss a family or Church activity my self-image and confidence takes a nose dive that it is hard to recover from. The Joy Stealers are there telling me I was not good enough to go anyway. Joy Stealer– confidence breaker. With both my Joy and Confidence level low it is difficult to put myself in situations that draw more attention to me and my illness. I have learned that these situations often leave me less than my best and vulnerable to the Joy Stealers.
The Second thing to recognize is the determination of the Friends in our Scripture in the Gospel of Luke. As determined as I might be to saying, “Ah, we will catch Jesus another day.” The Friends are even more determined that this is the day to meet Jesus. Again, seeing this situation through my eyes, I know my Christian friends will not accept any excuses from me, to keep me from meeting Jesus the Great Healer and Joy Giver. Just like the Friends in the verses in the Gospel of Luke, my Christian friends lift me up to bring me into the presence of Jesus.
In verse 25 after the paralytic receives his healing from Jesus he jumps up, picks up his mat and goes home, praising Jesus. I can feel the man’s Joy shine through this verse. I can almost see him dancing as he returns home filled with joy. I imagine his joy was so great to overflowing that it became Joy Shared.