On Sunday, my pastor preached about healing with the main focus being what Jesus asked a sick man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5:6) “Do you want to get well?” And the sermon hit home with me, so I wanted to share it in my own words here.

Sometimes, we become far too comfortable in our character flaws. It’s a lot easier to tell people “Oh, I get angry pretty often,” or “My eye wanders too often to places it shouldn’t go,” or “Well, I just don’t mince words. I call it as I see it” than it is to fix the underlying issues: that you are an angry person, easily set off, that you lust after every attractive person you see, or that you are rude to people.

For me, it was always more comfortable to be angry at, and rude to, people who upset me or I didn’t feel comfortable around. I was standoffish and unwilling to become close to anyone because I was anxious. For a large part of my life, I didn’t handle people well, and I convinced myself it was just part of my character. It was easier to get angry at people than it was to confront other thoughts and emotions when they asked for forgiveness. It was easier for me to get upset than it was to think about what happened in their life recently to cause them to act that way.

But after confronting those things and working to change how I react to people, I’ve found myself settling into my new behaviors and living far more at ease with those around me than I ever did before. It sucked at first; things were always awkward, and I probably made myself look silly a few times, but I got past the embarrassment and discomfort and became more like Christ.

We act like our sins are part of who we are as if nothing’s wrong because we’ve lived with them so long we don’t know who we’d be without it. But, specifically when it comes to sinful behavior, God calls us to rid ourselves of that, even though it’s uncomfortable, but you have to want it.

As with all facets of our faith in Christ, changing who you are to become who God wants you to be is a choice. There’s no magical change that’s going to happen in your life when you’re saved or when you ask God to confront your sinful behavior that will immediately stop you from sinning. You have to actively choose every moment to not partake in that behavior anymore until the new action becomes more ingrained and natural than the old.

And that’s why Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well. The man in John 5 had been sick with his malady for 38 years. That’s 16 years longer than I’ve been alive. He had all that time to grow comfortable and live with whatever it was that kept him from walking, working, and doing daily activities that most people did. He likely had few to no responsibilities. He probably never did anything on his own.

So, it was probably more of a dilemma that we all thought when Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” He had to confront within himself whether he’d rather finish out his life living as he did where he had others to take care of him and nothing to do but live and relax or deal with the pain and discomfort that would likely come from learning how to walk again, dealing with moving muscles and joints that hadn’t been exercised in 38 years, getting a job, providing for himself, paying taxes and tithes, etc.

Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us what happened with this guy after he was healed, but I can at least tell you what would’ve happened physically. Given time, the man would beat the pain and awkwardness of learning to walk after 38 years of not being able to. His legs would’ve become comfortable with the movements, and not only would his quality of life have been greatly improved thanks to his walking, he would find so much more enjoyment in living. He would’ve been able to go out with his friends, take a walk at sunset and see God’s beautiful creation, or pick up a hobby.

What we’re dealing with in behavior change looks like this: a false comfort in sin, discomfort through change, and then perfect comfort in Christ. As I’ve said frequently in other articles, sin is not fulfilling, but Christ is, and in fact, He overflows you with fulfillment. While change invites discomfort, once you reach the top of the hill, things become so much better.

I know when I first read this chapter, I thought the question was kind of silly. Of course he’d want to be well, I’d thought. But when I considered it this way, I realized how important of a question it was. To become more like Christ, you have to want it, and you have to choose it all the time, even, and especially, when it’s uncomfortable.

It will be uncomfortable for awhile. Healing usually is: as cuts heal and scar, they itch; as your body fights off disease, you get a fever; and as your heart and mind change, you deal with discomfort as well. But once it’s all said and done, you’ll find you’re much better off having gone through the healing than you were living in the sickness.