In my quiet time today, I read the account in Scripture where Jesus heals the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda. (Please read John 5:1-9) Jesus asks the man if he wants to be made whole? This seems like a question with an obvious answer. This man has been dealing with his infirmity for 38 years. It would seem that his answer would be a resounding Yes! However, that’s not what he said. Instead, he told Jesus that he couldn’t be healed because he had no man that could help him be the first one in the water when it was troubled. Jesus’ response was 3 simple commands, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” The man was waiting on a supernatural event, the angel troubling the water, to be healed of his infirmity. Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly what this infirmity was. We only know that he had it for 38 years and he was lying by the pool, waiting. This passage came alive for me this morning as I realized that I was like that man in that I’ve been waiting for some supernatural message from God to tell me what to write and how to write it! I’ve been lying on my mat instead of taking up my pen and doing the thing that God has obviously given me the love for and desire to do. Just as that man rose, picked up his mat and walked, it is time for me to rise above my fears, pick up my mat (the comfortable, self-protecting habits I’ve settled into to avoid doing a new thing) and walk in the power and freedom of becoming the writer that, I believe, God created me to be. I’m starting here, on this blog. From here, I plan to write books. What kind? How many? I’m not sure yet. But the one thing I am sure of is that it’s time for me to stop saying “I can’t” and time to take up my pen (or laptop) and write!