Jump Into the Water (part 3)

Mediocrity is the sneakiest killer.  It doesn't appear with guns blazing....it is a quite cloud that hovers in the heart of so many people.  Time passes and one day some event or experience blows out the fog and we are left standing in the middle, exposed.  For most of us this appears in the socially acceptable middle life crisis.
Among the folks laying around the pool of Bethesda, I bet there were those who had been there for a very long time.  Much like the invalid man that Jesus healed, all these folks knew was the life they led on their mats, waiting.  And because they had been there for so long, that life of waiting became the norm for them.  In fact, even though they were laying beside the pool to be healed, there were some that were afraid of the change healing would bring.  Sitting there day in and day out, although it wasn't a great existence, it was the life they knew.  Waiting was safer than change.
Again, I have to be honest and tell you that I have found myself living in this mindset of mediocrity and fear.  The unknown can make us freeze in fear.  It can keep us from operating in the power and confidence that Jesus died to give us.  Settling in this manner can keep us trapped in many destructive and threatening cycles.  These cycles become so ingrained in our hearts and minds that we can't even see the consequences of living in such a way.  Others may stand on the outside and shake their heads, but we are blinded by the fear.  Instead of  a life that is free and abundant, we choose safety and complacency.  We live just barely on the surface....just keeping it together, keeping our heads above water.  We aren't sinking below, but we aren't living the high life that is ours to claim.  It is a life of pure survival.
I can look at my own life and point to specific chunks of time where I settled.  I chose the safe way.  I chose to stay under the umbrella of fear.  But Romans 8:15 tells us, "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  This is the truth offered to us from the Word.  The rest are lies from the enemy as he takes a stronghold in our minds and blinds us to the mediocre, powerless existence he would have us live in.  Don't believe me?  2 Timothy 1:7 states, "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline."  If the Spirit God gave us is power, we have to assume the opposite, fear, comes from the enemy. 
We've been given the power to overcome this cycle of mediocrity.  The Bible also tells us that greater is He that lives in us than he that is in the world.  And of course we were told by Paul that we are more than conquerors. 
Knowing this, what instructions does Jesus give us, here in John 5, to move us from our safety nets?
We'll unpack this in the blogs to come.  What I would encourage you to do is to pray and search your heart for the areas in your life where you might be choosing fear or complacency over the freedom and abundance God has for you.  Are you choosing to just lay beside the pool because fear keeps you on the mat and not in the water?  I challenge you to seek out those places and then rewrite the Word's truth over that fear.  Then with a heart surrendered to God, dive head first into the pool and splash around in the healing power that comes from Jesus Christ.