Focused on the Wrong Thing

I was reading John 5 this morning and continuing to reflect the following verses:

(NIV)John 5:5-12
One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
[7] “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” [8] Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” [9] At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, [10] and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” [11] But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” [12] So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

I was thinking this morning about the Jewish leaders who totally missed the fact that this man was healed and were more concerned with the fact that he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Even after he told them he had been healed, their only concern was that he was breaking the law, and someone had told him to break it.

Talk about missing the forest for the trees! Here in their midst a man had been healed, who was an invalid for 38 years. This was probably the first time he could carry his mat in all those years, and the Jewish leaders are more concerned about this specific religious observance then the fact that he was healed. The religious spirit was so strong in them that they were blinded to the miracle that happened right in front of them. I find myself thinking, how could they possibly miss something so significant!

I also find myself wondering how man times have I missed the move of God, because it didn't happen the way I thought it should? Maybe it didn't happen at my church, or maybe it happened at a place that I didn't agree with theologically, or maybe I missed it because I was too busy or too tired. Maybe I missed what the Lord was doing in my life or the lives of those around me because I was too focused on some little issue that was mostly irrelavent.

Lord, I pray that You will help me to recognize Your movement around me so that I might see You at work. Help me to step beyond the rules, the ways that I think it should work, so that I might see You moving in our midst.