^“Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus.”

Do we know anyone who doesn’t like to share the spotlight, or when challenged to work on a team as a peer that they push against being just one of the gang?  We need leaders and employees who are willing to take the bull by the horns and move things forward, but we also need those same people to be willing at times to just take one part of the effort and move along with everyone else.  It’s almost harder to teach a sole contributor to become a team player than it is to get a team member to step forward and take the lead.  We need different strategies for different people and it’s important that we are always working on this.

In the account of when Jesus healed the paralyzed man whom had been lowered through the roof into the room below where Jesus was ministering, we read of the men who carried the paralyzed man and then lowered him from above.  I picture the sleeping mat turning into a stretcher that they used, likely requiring a man on each corner to be able to control the weight as it carried the man’s descent.  I see the metaphor that sometimes, or maybe many times, we need to be willing to just carry one corner to help someone else.  We aren’t always asked to carry all the weight, but when we are asked to help, even just a little, it can go a long way, even to the presence of Jesus.

Reference: Luke 5:18-19 (New Living Translation)