¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. (Luke 13:10-13, NIV)

A woman crippled for eighteen years. Finally, Jesus comes and says, “Enough of this.”

I think of this story and how we, as humans, have such a high tolerance for pain in our lives. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Sometimes we carry that pain longer because we are enabled. Change is possible… within reach… but the fear of change paralyzes us. The only way we change, most of the time, is the pain of staying the same is finally too much.

Can we get to a place in our lives when, as the Church, we get tired of watching people stay in bondage? Are we sitting back too much, allowing life just to happen to us? Is there a time when we rise up, get tired of watching people stay in chains, and we fulfill the call of the Kingdom… setting people free… watching bondages fall.

We have to come to our own end in our own lives. We need to be tired of our own bondages. We need to see the heart of a Father who calls out to us saying, “I have so much more for you.”

Somehow, can we rise up to see the beauty of the Kingdom of God and just cry out for more?