How to Move From HERE to THERE

For anyone who has ever ‘needed’ to move from where they were in life or health or relationships or faith, to a better, healthier, more positive place--it has always started with ‘desire.’  Such people wanted to move from HERE to THERE.

Not everyone desires such a move.  See, some people like it HERE.  And, naively, they believe they can just stay HERE.  But the truth is that life is always in a state of improvement or decline.  There really is no such thing as staying the same.

Think about it. If you don’t use your muscles for a period of time, they don’t stay the same, they atrophy.

If you clean your house, and even if you lock it up and stay out of it for a few weeks, when you come back, dust will be on furniture and cobwebs will be in corners. 

You can’t stay HERE.  So, you have to decide, where do I want this part of my life to go?   Let’s take your faith, for example.  If you are a Christian, you might ask: where do I want my life in Christ to be in a year?

What do I want my character and integrity and reputation to be like, six months from now?  What do I DESIRE?

This is true for every area of your life.  You must want it.  And that has to come from you.  This is your part in moving any area of your life from HERE TO THERE.

You can read books, people can encourage you, someone can give you a step-by-step plan, but no one can give you the “WANT TO.”  Desire has to come from you.  Do you WANT to move from here to there?

There’s an interesting exchange between Jesus and a man who had been lame for a long time. 

“Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.  5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?””                                                                                           John 5:1-6

Jesus healed this man, but first wanted to know: do you want it?  I mean, for 38 years this has been your life, you’ve remained a victim of your circumstances.

You’ve gotten used to life this way.  You’ve fallen into a pattern and a belief that this is as good as it gets.  And all of that works against you hoping or believing or WANTING life to be different.  Is there any desire left in you for life to be different, to believe you can move from HERE TO THERE?

Some of you have languished so long in poverty, or addiction or sub-par relationships, that you are beginning to believe it cannot be better.  You’ve settled in.  You’ve accepted it as if this is how it will always be.  Your hopes and desires have given way to an acceptance of HERE.

Jesus asked this man…38 YEARS in his circumstances….do you want it to be different, and Jesus demonstrated that even after an excruciatingly long period of time one way, life could be another way.

After many years HERE, you  can live life THERE.

For some of you it’s been addiction, or a series of failures, bad choices and worse consequences.

You have concluded: “That’s just me.  I’m a royal ”Mess Up.”  I’m a loser.  It’s my life.  Been this way for as long as I can remember.

And Jesus squares Himself in front of you and forces your attention to His eyes and He asks the most important question you’ve been asked in years:  DO YOU WANT TO BE WELL?

DO YOU DESIRE A BETTER LIFE, or, have you settled in, accepted defeat, and given up?

It doesn’t matter how many people around you want it for you. Until YOU want it, you’ll never get THERE--that place you once dreamed of being, that level you once dreamed of achieving, that sobriety, that saved marriage, that financial freedom, that strong relationship with Christ.

You FIRST have to want it.

Brad Johnson is Pastor of California Community Church, Agoura Hills, CA.  The church meets in the Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel each Sunday morning at 9:30 & 11:00.   www.californiacommunitychurch.com