Wyoming is a hodge-podge of environments. You can be driving through a forested mountain range one minute and the next, end up in bleak, brown plains where the wind literally blows semi-trucks off the roads. Luckily for me I didn’t have to drive the isolated stretch of wind and sagebrush alone. I had company this trip around as I set my sights on Platte Valley Assembly of God church in Saratoga, Wyoming. My Sister, my forever best friend, and her family accompanied me on my adventure this week.

We took the route to Saratoga via Rawlins. And if you know anything about Wyoming, you probably have heard about interstate i-80 closing several times for hazardous conditions during winter. Rawlins, the landscape, is a homely sort of place situated right on the edge of the interstate. There are no luscious forest views, or statuesque mountains. It’s just a hilly, brown, trucking town. Yet only an hour or so away, the mountain ranges begin again, and a hunter’s oasis sits at the southern central base of Wyoming where the towns of Saratoga, Riverside, and Encampment dwell. Perhaps it is that forceful Wyoming wind that blew all the mountains south stirring up the Wyoming landscape just to keep you guessing what’s around that next stretch of highway.

Either way, we jam-packed our trip trying to see all of the sights that south-central Wyoming had to offer. The tour of the old Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins was very interesting and a bit scary. Did you know they filmed a B horror movie there in the 1980’s starring Viggo Mortensen? We also got to tour the old bank and Parco Inn in Sinclair. Another fun fact, the debonair Clark Gable once stayed there. My niece did not know who that was or how to dial a rotary phone they had on display at the bank. It made me feel old indeed.

In Saratoga the hot springs is a must-see for the touristy traveler. The hot springs is made up of three pools. A large pool in the middle with a rock-enclosed pool inside which is referred to as the lobster pot, and a smaller pool off to the side. They are not kidding when they refer to them as hot springs. The small pool was 107 degrees, the large pool was 108 degrees, and the lobster pot was 114 degrees. I’ve never felt such hot water at a hot springs than here, so hot that I could only go ankle deep. The hot springs was teaming with people though, all trying to relax and enjoy the health benefits of the water.

You can imagine my astoundment then, when the message at church Sunday morning was about the healing at the pool of Bethesda. Coincidence or God? Definitely God.

Pastor Gene Smith’s message was full of self-reflection and how Jesus stirs up the waters and heals the broken. Like the hot springs of Saratoga, the pool of Bethesda was a gathering place for those that needed healing. The hot springs of Saratoga however, aren’t as tousled as the waters at Bethesda. The Bible tells us that when the waters of Bethesda stir up, the first person that steps into the water is healed. The waters of Saratoga sit rather calmly and every once in a while you can catch a tiny stream of bubbles, bubbling up from the ground.

Current scientific research tells us that hot springs can help ease some skin conditions, promote blood circulation, relieve pain, and help with sleep. I imagine that the waters of Bethesda had similar health benefits, yet the people there were so desperate for healing that they would wait for years on end for a chance at the stirred waters.

Pastor Smith asked us to consider ourselves. We too sometimes wait around for things to change, for our problems to heal, bound to the chains of our routines. How often do we complain about the need to change, or are in an endless cycle of wanting to stir things up in our lives, but come up short. I know I was in this cycle for years, a decade even. I desperately wanted my life to have meaning, to change the way I felt day after day of doing the same thing. My soul needed healing, but I was relying on my own will to try to change my circumstances. Nothing I did seemed to change the feeling in my heart that something was missing.

The story of Bethesda goes a little something like this. A paralyzed man had been waiting around at the pool of Bethesda for years for his chance to be the first one into the stirred waters. For all of those years he found no change in his situation, he found no healing. And then, Jesus came and asked if he wanted to be healed. Pastor Smith, and a lot of other teachers I’ve listened to, make the point that when the man answered Jesus, he didn’t really say yes he wanted to be healed, but instead tried to explain how he had been trying to get healed, but no one would help him into the waters. How often do we try to explain our situations of un-change. “If I can wake up earlier…If I can get a better paying job…If I can try a new idea…” So often we miss Jesus asking us if we want to be healed because we think we can heal ourselves. 

Jesus, full of grace, heals the man anyway even though he never actually said that yes, he wanted to be healed. “Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.’ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” John 5:8-9 ESV. On these journeys of self-healing, or change we so often think that we have all the answers, and we can do it ourselves. We are so full of these self-help ideologies we are quick to forget that Jesus is the change we desire, and really the only way healing is possible. Why are we so quick to dismiss his help? Instead, we choose decades of struggle trying to do it ourselves. We forget, All things are possible with God. Matthew 19:26

“Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.’ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.”

John 5:8-9 ESV

Maybe you don’t necessarily believe that right now. Maybe you’re waiting for change in your life, healing from something missing in your heart, and you’re turning to yourself to find a new way. Can I encourage you to let Jesus help? Take time with Jesus, tell him your desires, tell him your dreams, tell him your hurts.  I think you’ll be surprised at the amount of heaviness you will release just by talking with Jesus.  He answers your prayers in such unexpected ways. For me it was quitting my job and starting this blog. For you it might be healing you on the spot so you can take up your mat and walk away. Jesus is the one who stirs things up. He can change your life radically. Why not give him a shot? If we are willing to give hot springs a shot at their apparent healing powers, is it really that big of a leap to give Jesus a shot? Remember, the man at Bethesda didn’t seek Jesus out for healing, Jesus sought him out. Do you feel a calling at your soul for change? That could be Jesus seeking you out. Let him stir up the waters of change inside of you. 

If you would like to hear Pastor Smith’s entire sermon you can do so here. I’m so blessed to be able to have this opportunity to visit these different churches across our great state of Wyoming. Jesus is definitely stirring up change in my own life. I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for me. He is the God of all things good!!

 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

Matthew 16:26