“Do You Want to Get Well?”
John 5:6
This question from Jesus is timeless. It cuts just as deep today as it did at the Pool of Bethesda. It’s the spiritual equivalent of rapper 50 Cent’s gritty line: “Get rich or die tryin’.” Either we chase what heals us, or we chase what ultimately harms us. Either way, desire drives us.
We are paradise people—created from the dust of Eden. Our story is one of paradise lost and paradise to be regained. Deep within every soul is a longing to get back home—to God. Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, our hearts whisper, “There’s no place like home.” Even when we sleep, the soul stays awake (Song of Solomon 5:2), yearning, thirsting, aching for more than what this world offers.
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, became a living monument to this paradise-hunger. He explored every human avenue of desire: pleasure, women, wealth, wine, wisdom, power, religion—you name it. But in the end, he called it all “vanity”—a futile chase after the wind.
Today, we’re bombarded with messages that stoke our desires:
“Drive this.”
“Buy that.”
“Live here.”
“Be them.”
It’s an assault on the soul.
After decades of mentoring the incarcerated and the homeless, I’ve learned something simple but profound: Every addiction is an honest attempt to fill a God-sized hole. We were made to desire. But that desire has a purpose—to lead us back to the One who made us.
Denying your desire doesn’t make you holy—it just makes you hollow.
Pretending you don’t want anything from life is just another form of self-deception.
After 38 years lying beside a pool of false hope, Jesus asked the man a question that echoes to us today:
“Do you want to get well?”
Are you ready to confront the true purpose of your desire?
Then hear Him say it again—
“Get up. Pick up your mat. And walk.”
(John 5:8)
Strong Blessings,
Cedric
This question from Jesus is timeless. It cuts just as deep today as it did at the Pool of Bethesda. It’s the spiritual equivalent of rapper 50 Cent’s gritty line: “Get rich or die tryin’.” Either we chase what heals us, or we chase what ultimately harms us. Either way, desire drives us.
We are paradise people—created from the dust of Eden. Our story is one of paradise lost and paradise to be regained. Deep within every soul is a longing to get back home—to God. Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, our hearts whisper, “There’s no place like home.” Even when we sleep, the soul stays awake (Song of Solomon 5:2), yearning, thirsting, aching for more than what this world offers.
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, became a living monument to this paradise-hunger. He explored every human avenue of desire: pleasure, women, wealth, wine, wisdom, power, religion—you name it. But in the end, he called it all “vanity”—a futile chase after the wind.
Today, we’re bombarded with messages that stoke our desires:
“Drive this.”
“Buy that.”
“Live here.”
“Be them.”
It’s an assault on the soul.
After decades of mentoring the incarcerated and the homeless, I’ve learned something simple but profound: Every addiction is an honest attempt to fill a God-sized hole. We were made to desire. But that desire has a purpose—to lead us back to the One who made us.
Denying your desire doesn’t make you holy—it just makes you hollow.
Pretending you don’t want anything from life is just another form of self-deception.
After 38 years lying beside a pool of false hope, Jesus asked the man a question that echoes to us today:
“Do you want to get well?”
Are you ready to confront the true purpose of your desire?
Then hear Him say it again—
“Get up. Pick up your mat. And walk.”
(John 5:8)
Strong Blessings,
Cedric
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Message spot on. I don't mean flavor just in the meat. I mean that flavor got all the way down inside the bone. To the marrow. Mssg. received . Just under eighteen months sobriety treatment a year of sober living.. Then about eight months in another state Thank You Jesus. Spent bout 38 yrs drinkn n drug'n. Made whole. On my way to blamelessness in spreading the Good News. All the travel state to state In the almost last two years I have been the only one of my european descent.. i wouldn't trade it for the world. My sobriety through the courts off to another state. Feel like i'm in another country. And now happened for almost a little while in almost two years. I have noticed idolatry in the car's driven clothes warm, shoes shined. Many other things in the brick & mortar church's I didn't notice before. I consider all rubbish and to stay focused on purpose. Thank you. I look forward to checking in to these daily.
n
nToday, we’re bombarded with messages that stoke our desires:
n“Drive this.”
n“Buy that.”
n“Live here.”
n“Be them.”
nIt’s an assault on the soul.
n
nEvery addiction is an honest attempt to fill a God-sized hole. We were made to desire. But that desire has a purpose—to lead us back to the One who made us.
n
nAmen