Stones Are Still Moving

I was sitting down with a buddy of mine, Aaron Flores, who is now the worship pastor over at the Mariners Oceanside campus.

As we were talking about songs we wanted to write, he threw this chorus idea out which would eventually turn into the song “Stones are Still Moving”. It says:

Come on let your faith arise

Come on let the healer heal

The song can have many meanings. It talks about what happens when the church unifies. It talks about what happens when God enters into broken things and overthrows lies and makes old things new. It’s a powerful song, and I was honored to write it with a great friend.

For a moment now though, I want to focus on this idea of allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our lives. Allowing the healing work of God to invade our every wound and doubt.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Jared brought up the story of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. Let’s read a portion together.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity of thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was well, took up his bed, and walked.

- John 5:5-9

I really love this story and, to be honest, I really wonder what would have happened if the man responded differently! Right? Imagine for a moment if the man had said, “Heck yeah, I do!” or maybe the more classic sarcastic, DJ-style remark, “That’s a really dumb question, dude.”

When I was a kid, I was skateboarding down the hill to my childhood home. To be more specific, I was “Rip Sticking,” which was a skateboard with two wheels that swivels back and forth. For someone as uncoordinated as I am on skateboards, I don’t think choosing the vehicle with less wheels was a wise choice. Nonetheless, I crested over the 6 block drop that is the hill of Greenbriar Avenue after basketball practice one day with nothing but dumb confidence, a helmet (praise God), no other guards, and my two wheeled stalion. Block one quickly revealed that with age comes wisdom. For in that moment, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. By block two confidence turned to complete despair, and suddenly, I didn’t even have my steed to ride on. I had hit a bump, and flown face forward like a ragdoll, leaving my ego and rip stick twenty feet behind me. My face hit first, my knees and elbows followed. I stood up, too shocked to cry, too shaken up to feel pain, and too embarrassed to call home. I shamefully picked up my board, and began to walk the remaining 5 blocks home. By the goodness of God, my father was driving up the hill to take my sister to practice, saw me blood stained and crying, pulled over, and took me home to get me cleaned up.

I tell you this story for two reasons… One, I believe it’s important for people to understand that my professional skating career died that day. And that’s why I now play guitar for a living. But in all seriousness, I really tell this story to illustrate a point that happened shortly after that moment.

After I arrived home, my dad offered to help clean and disinfect my injuries, but I wouldn’t let him. I was so afraid of the pain that would come from the disinfectant. I knew that the reality was that I would ultimately be better for it, but my humanity jumped in and said, “No thanks, I got this. I’ll deal with it on my own. Leave me alone.”

Don’t we all do this to an extent? We all say to ourselves, “God, I know I screwed up, and I know that you know what’s best for me to be made well. But the truth is, I’m afraid of the process that might take place to get there so I’m going to make up some excuse and sulk in the corner and try to put the pieces together myself.”

Now, I’m not saying that the man by the pool had messed up and made mistakes that brought him there. But I am saying that we as people often just take the hand we are dealt and try to make it the best we can with what we have. But what Jesus shows us here is that He is keenly interested in stepping into the hand we're dealt and dealing us the winning hand.

He wants to see you and me be made well. But in order to see that, we need to discover our own “want” to be made well.

I hope, today, you have a moment to look at a wound or something broken in your life and ask yourself the question, “Has God been trying to make me well, and have I decided I don’t want his help?” I get it, we’re stubborn people who want to make a way for ourselves. But our God is a stubborn God who knew the best way for ourselves.

So my encouragement for you today is to let your faith arise, and let the Healer do what He does best in your life today.

DJ Brennan

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