Life on the Mat vs. Life on Your Feet

Let's expand this idea of living life on the mat vs. life on your feet that we looked at this past Sunday.





Mark 2:1-12


It's an amazing moment in the ministry of Jesus. We get a glimpse of four wonderful friends who would do whatever it takes to get their friend to Jesus. We see an amazing God at work who doesn't 'fix' our problems but rather provides life healing forgiveness in our lives. We are treated to new life literally and spiritually being born in this moment.


A question I asked Sunday was, "Are you living on the mat or are you living on your feet?"

In this moment we see a man who gets to Jesus living on a mat, yet when Jesus enters into his life the moment with the Savior changed everything for him. His life is no longer on the mat. His life is lived on his feet! So, where are you living?

Life on the mat is exactly what life was for this paralytic. It's not moving. It's still. It's laying flat. It's life settled with no ending. It's the life of self, the one of oldness. When we live life on the mat we don't pick up traction and go anywhere. We stay put. In a big sense it's a life where real life living can not happen. Now, please, please, please do not hear me say that those with paralysis have an 'easy' life. I am in no way trying to down play the tragic real life fact for so many people in our world who do not have the ability to move their limbs or bodies. It's an awful and we see this life being lived in Mark 2. Yet, spiritually speaking we tend to be people who live on the mat. Spiritually, we seek Jesus to 'fix' the situation rather than provide the life giving power he is more than willing to give. Spiritually, we can't move because we don't know how to move for Christ.

Can you imagine the scene these men must have caused to bring their friend to Jesus? They literally dug a hole in a roof to get him there! It must have been dusty, dirty, chaotic at best when everyone realized what was going on. And in my little head, I just see the man being lowered perfectly to the feet of Jesus. It's in that instance where he "saw their faith" and spoke some amazing words: "your sins are forgiven." Now, everyone there must have been expecting a physical healing. They just knew it was coming and that Jesus was going to perform another miracle before their very own eyes. Yet, Jesus doesn't go there. He goes for life healing rather than physical healing. I could keep going here (maybe I will in another blog) but I want to stay on the path of Mat vs. Feet. 


I know too often I'm living on the mat. My spiritual life is in a state of paralysis. I take comfort though in this great truth: Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, has the ability to bring me to my feet!


Life on you feet is life moving! It's life pressing towards the goal. It's life brought to you by Jesus himself. It's life of power. It's life pleasing to God. When we get on our feet we are living our faith. Faith is no more a strong belief, but what our faith must be: ACTION. Jesus in our lives makes all the difference for us. Jesus' presence changes everything.


Yet, I struggle with being someone who lives on the mat. Why? Why am I so prone to take the easy way the simple way, the life that stays still. I want so badly to be one who gets up and walk in full view of everyone because Jesus has changed me. I desire it so badly. 


I believe we have a great enemy. Our enemy wants us to buy into these worldly ideals of 'self,' 'power,' 'money,' 'too much,' 'too weak,' 'insignificant,' 'pleasure' and so on. And when we buy into these we place ourselves on the mat.

I am recently discovering my biggest issue. I'm lazy. I am. My spiritual life is suffering because of my laziness. I'm not a big work out kind of guy. Yet, when you don't get up and move, you begin to put on the pounds. The weight begins to increase. Not all at once, but slowly. And I've noticed this. I haven't regularly worked out in a few months. The idea of doing it is tiring. But one day, because God allowed me to put this together, I realized that my psychical laziness was intruding on my spiritual life. I don't like getting up early to run for 30minutes and I realized I don't like getting up early to spend 10minutes with God. Sad huh? And It's not because I don't think running in the morning is a bad thing or spending time with God is a bad thing, but it's inconvenient for someone like me who likes being lazy on the mat.

Just like the weight I gain slowly for not being active, it happens spirituality. Slowly, but surely my relationship with God has been gaining spiritual weight. Not a good thing. Not something I want. So, I've decided that my laziness has to be changed. I have to get up and move. I have to be active physically so that my spiritual life will be active. I can't allow the laziness of one part of my life to intrude and invade the other parts. To fight that off I'm getting up and moving again. I'm trying to live my life on my feet. And guess what? It's tough! My shins hurt for three straight days this past weekend. But, it stopped.

I'm trying to slowly get myself back into moving shape. And that is important for us all to remember: you don't just get up and run a mile or two or whatever after being on the mat for so long. You have to work your way up there again. So, physically I'm working my way back up to being somewhat in shape again and so it is true spiritually. I'm trying to work my way back to being someone who lives life on their feet more times than the mat. I want to be reminded of the great power and presence of Christ in my life and allow his presence to get me up and move again. To do so, I need him and I need to spend time with him. I have to put him a priority and not allow the selfish-laziness to creep in and take my feet away. I must be the man who got up, after who knows how long being in a state of paralysis. He moved again because Jesus was involved.

Life on the mat is where we go to often. I know it's true for me. But, we are definitely not people who are to live life on the mat. No, no, we are people called to be up and moving. People on their feet. People through the forgiving power of Christ get up and walk out and share Him to all. We are people who are Ambassadors for the life changer himself, people who received a spirit of power not timidity, people who were called into holiness, people who were bought at a great price, people encouraged to have the same attitude of Christ, people moved to love others, people that must walk like Him.

Jesus "saw their faith" and life on his feet began. I pray I stay on my feet and my faith is action.