Striking while the iron is hot
Welcome to another entry here at deposition of our faith. Thank you for joining us!
Scripture Reading: John 5 (1–9)
In Jerusalem, there is this pool that scripture tells us an angel would come to stir in certain seasons. According to the passage, “whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
I spoke to someone recently, and the person mentioned that it was weird that the pool would only heal the first person who stepped in.
“First? Why just the first?”
And if you think about it, it indeed seems odd. Sometimes, these story arcs can sound vague and even unnecessary. For instance, you could look at Naaman’s case (2 Kings 5) and wonder why he couldn’t just dip in the river once. After all, it’s not like the water was actually doing anything, in the physical sense; taking a long bath is not the cure for leprosy. So, why would that instruction even need to be so specific?
But even though we have such instructions like Naaman’s that seem gratuitous, they aren’t quite the same as the one we see in John 5:1–9. Because not only does this one seem gratuitous, it seems very unfair. Are persons with physical disabilities supposed to act like they are in the Paralympics every single time some angel comes to stir the water? Are sick folk supposed to claw at each other and push against themselves, struggling to get their healing and deliverance by all means necessary?
Bethesda’s pool: Analogous to life
In present-day reality, we cannot deny that if following God’s Word was an allegorical pool and divine instructions and revelation was a method of stirring that pool, the results would be the same. Why? Because only the people who move quickly at the sound of instruction run with the zeal/fire that came with it.
Not to be too figurative, let us look at an example in our daily lives. Sometimes, you go to church, and you receive some divine instruction, whether from the mouth of the preacher or directly from the inspiration of God to your spirit. And then, you come out of the service refreshed and inspired, but the thing with motivation is that it dissipates. It is like gas leaking out of a poorly sealed container. So despite making all manner of mental decisions, sometimes you leave such meetings and never quite carry them out physically because the time has passed. While it is possible that relying on mental assent and manufactured inspiration instead of faith and spiritual strength may be the cause of this, another significant reason is not moving quickly.
Let us come out of the spiritual context for a second and even look at it from another perspective. We are in a new year, and for most people, a calendar change often comes with new resolutions. We all start to make points of what we want to do in the new year after seeing something inspiring, and we often make the mistake of waiting for the crack of dawn to start implementing.
So what we have is a list of resolutions written, to be acted upon on January 1, 2022.
But January 1 this year came on a weekend, so let us wait till Monday. Oops, Monday is a holiday! So let’s wait till Tuesday or Wednesday for good measure. But wait, it doesn’t feel or sound right to start executing a resolution in the middle of the week, so let’s wait for next week Monday…
So you see that sometimes if you don’t act in the season of instruction, the move (just like the stirring of the water) can pass you even just on procrastination alone. It is like the case of the blacksmith. When iron is no longer red-hot, it is not as malleable. And so, when you are trying to fashion a tool or a weapon, you do not take your red-hot frame and observe it for its charming glow.
No. You begin to hammer.
While there is never a guarantee that one would finish what one starts, striking when the iron is hot is very important when it comes to anything and especially the things of the divine. When we get divine instruction, we should be careful not to fall back to our old patterns of doing things because it is very easy not to move at all. When ideas are brewing, and plans are just developing, the road seems more straightforward, and enthusiasm is high. However, at no point did that happiness you felt ever mean that there would be no reasons never even to start at all. But, the path from point A to point B is most clear in that moment. Don’t let that disruption settle back into normalcy because your kick, your push and your fire may be nothing but a tiny glow by then.
Acting when your faith and hope are on their highest points is very important. And usually, the point when your faith is most high is at the beginning of receiving instruction. Noah began building the ark as soon as he was instructed. We spoke about it months ago that the actual rainfall didn’t even come for about 100 years! If Noah had taken a nap after receiving the instruction and then studied the plausibility of the instructions he was given, he probably would have dismissed the entire project and chucked the revelation up to a case of fatigue. “Perhaps the sun was too hot, and I began to hallucinate”.
Many of us know when we find that verse, that scriptural revelation, that it is the voice of God. Doubt does not creep at that moment when God speaks. It only creeps in when the word settles; when we sit with it, we don’t do anything about it. When we begin to over-analyse the instructions, they don’t become clearer but rather more tentative. Things like fear, worry and overthinking creep in, which are antecedent to failure when it comes to following through with resolutions and instructions.
The lag between Intention and Execution
So when we look at these things in relation to that Jerusalem pool, we realise that it is bigger than God just wanting to be vague or complex. On the contrary, it is reality.
The reality is that if the people beside the river did not step in when the angel stirred, they probably would even lose faith in the potency of the pool to heal them. “Time has passed, and the angel will come again,” is what many will say.
We have these examples in life of individuals who placate themselves with statements like, “there is still time”. Well, yes, there is still time. But, the unfortunate assumption anyone who relies on that retort makes is that they think they will still have the motivation, the faith, the fire. They think that the only variable is time and opportunity, and that these things are not scarce commodities. But chances are fleeting, and a missed opportunity does not present itself again.
We have all been in situations when we had the opportunity to reach out to the lost, help the sick, and give to the needy, and we slept on the thought and never followed through with action. And intention is not the same thing as action. Your intentions could be good, but I have never seen a poor man buy bread and pay with intention. I have never seen a person facilitate a relationship with God and others, earn money or build a business solely via the power of intention. The reality is that the ratio of our intentions to our executed actions is never distributed in equal proportions. And often it is because of this very thing we have spoken of: the lag between reception of vision and execution of same.
If we look at the story again, we see that the man had been in his infirmity for 38 years. That lets you know how much the gods of this world do not care for your reasons. He suffered for years because of his inability to get into the pool when the angel stirred it.
But, what do we really need?
What we really need to access our blessings, to move in faith, or to act according to God’s will, is not a ceremonious kickstart date but faith. Faith is what really matters, not the date, the time or the significance of the period (like many assume when they make new year resolutions). You don’t have to wait for a new year, or a new week, or whatever, to start moving. That is just another deception that keeps us frozen while the iron loses its heat.
With human beings, there are many variables, which is why you are not advised to jump headfirst into dealings with people without caution. However, with God, the only variable is yourself; what you do and the extent of your understanding behind your actions. God will reward (Hebrews 11:6), God will answer (Jeremiah 33:3), God will provide (Matthew 6:33), but will you diligently seek him? Will you call upon him? And will you prioritise his matters?
In that scripture, Jesus healed the man on that selfsame hour. And it was a Sabbath day, on which day the operation was forbidden. But faith is the only prerequisite (Romans 10:10–17). the scripture doesn’t tell us what day we should make the confession or what position the moon and the planets must be in so that the rotation of the heavenly bodies don’t obstruct the audibility of your confession. All you need is the faith, and when your faith is alive and divine instruction is in your hand, all that is left to do is run.
