“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about waiting lines.  I’m not sure why, but maybe it is because that as things have started to open back up, I see more and more lines of people waiting for something.  We take for granted that people can wait in line until we know someone who can’t.  There are many who can’t stand long enough to be in a line, or don’t have the luxury of time to do so.  So, what would they do?  Likely, they don’t even try.  I wonder how often we create in our service or events, lines?  We actually do it all the time but can’t even see them.  Like that on hold line when we are told we are number #17 in a queue (nicer word for line) to be answered.  Or the line we create when we aren’t properly staffed to wait on the next customer.  Or because we are late or not ready the line forms for waiting to get in.  Sure, sometimes lines are almost inevitable, but are they really?   Consider what lines you have stood in lately and whether they could have been avoided with a little more creativity, ingenuity and accommodation?  I’m pretty sure you will come up with answer to each occurrence you can think of.

The lame man at the pool of Bethesda couldn’t get to the pool for the people who could stand in front of him, or might have just kept cutting the line.  He is a reminder for me today that for every opportunity we have that there is likely someone who feels like they just can’t get ahead or progress further down the line.  There might be someone we work with today who just needs our help to keep them moving in the direction they want to go. How can we be the help they need?

Reference:  John 5:7 (New Living Translation)