There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.’“
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a Sabbath. Jn 5:1-16

I can not say that I have been healed in many aspects of my life, nor that I have not seen miracles. My two children, they are miracles. He has been there with me through all of my trials, and will continue to be there with me on my journey through life. I know this. As much as I would love to have been there, and been like the man in this story, I know that no matter what, just like this man, I am being called to take up my “mat” and walk. God has been working on me slowly but steadily. He knows that I am stubborn about many things in life, and that my heart can easily be hardened. I know that He is working in my life.

Everyone wants that instant miracle in their life, I am no exception. The man in this story was healed in an instant. I know that, for me, waiting on my “healing” is very hard to do. I want everything to happen right now. I want the signs to come to me, and I want them to come in my time. Well, guess what, God doesn’t work that way, He works in His own time. For me, I think that if he really did give me all of the instant wonders, I would not remain faithful. He works differently for everyone, because we all experience life in our own special way. I know that He is working perfectly for me. He gives me what I need in life, not necessarily what I think I want in life.