There is a mantra that is used in Human Resources and it goes like this, "Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior." The belief is that if you want to know if someone can do a particular job, figure out how they behaved in the past and with some certainty you can predict their behavior in the future. This comes from the belief that people can learn new skills and knowledge but their basic behaviors and abilities do not change.

There is truth to this. Think about it for yourself. What if careers came in the form of a lottery and you were told to be an accountant and you were told to be a nurse and you a funeral director and you were told to be a priest, what would happen? Very likely we would have more than a recession to cope with. There is a way in which we align our abilities and gifts - to the skills and behaviours required for a job because we know that there are certain things we are good at and there are also certain things we are not good at. No amount of training will make us good at something we are not suited for.

This is our last sermon for our ‘New Beginnings’ series and we are asking the question, "Can we change?’ When it comes to core behaviours and characteristics it is very unlikely we can change.

You see, somehow or other, God has fashioned each and every one of us with particular and specific gifts and abilities. Fight against that and you are fighting God’s handiwork and that is not a battle you are going to win.

I wonder sometimes if our desire to change is actually caught up in our self loathing. We don’t like who we are, the gifts we have been given and the limitations we possess, and so we say to ourselves, "I want to change." "I want to be different." Wanting change of this sort is not healthy and ultimately is fruitless because we are trying to be something we can never be.

So if we can’t change the core of who are we, then what is all this new beginning stuff all about? For the past few weeks we have explored new beginnings with family, parents, each other, the environment, with God in our spiritual lives. We have been quite clear, the only thing we have the power to change is ourselves. And I just finished saying our gifts and abilities generally don’t change, so how does all this work?

In the gospel reading today a sick man is sitting next to a healing pool and is asked by Jesus, "Do you want to be made well?" A better translation would be to say, "Do you want to be made whole?" This is a very good question as this man has been sitting there by this pool for 38 years. You got to wonder if he hasn’t begun to identify with his illness.

Well, Jesus certainly believes people can change. Jesus’ whole life ministry was to help people change, "I bring you a new law…" But not changing their abilities and gifts, change that brings about wholeness. Change that allows a person to be more fully who they were fashioned to become.

The true spiritual question then is not really, "Can we change?" but rather Jesus’ question, "Do we want to be made whole?"

Now I have to tell you, from all accounts, the journey to wholeness is no picnic but it is the kind the change that is lasting, profound and possible. It requires a life without lies, a constant examining of the ego, a humble honesty and dependence on God.

So just take a moment and ask yourself, what about yourself would you like to change? Are those things that you want to change part of who you are? Are you setting yourslef up for failure or worse, are you trying to change because you don’t like who you are?

Take a look at New Year’s Resolutions for example, Do you say something like: I want to be more patient with loved ones. I want to be less controlling. Or I want to care more. Or I want to say no more.

Just as an example, let’s look at the impatient one. If patience is not a God given gift then it is unlikely our own effort will bring about long-lasting and deep change. However, if the journey is to strive for wholeness and by doing so we have opened ourselves to God’s power and grace, disciplined ourselves to check to voice of our ego and needs and begin to accept ourselves, limitations and all, then we most likely will still be impatient but there might be a lot less anger attached to it.

I want to share with you William Paul Young’s story. William Paul Young is the author of the book The Shack. I went to hear him speak here in Toronto awhile back and I will offer his story because it is so much about this difference between change on the surface and deeper change that comes with striving to be whole, to be what God intended us to be.

Paul was a church leader, born to a missionary family, had a fine upstanding ministry and homelife. His answer to Jesus’ question, "Do you want to be whole?" happened one day when he received a call from his wife who told him she knew. She knew he was having an affair. In that moment he knew that his good family and religious façade was ripped apart. He felt at the time that he had two options, to deal with it or to die.

You see, Paul had been living for some time behind a thin veneer. There were a number of difficult issues in his life, for one he had been abused as a child. A veneer was required to hold back all the secrets and all the shame and the anger. He probably was not all that pleasant to live with as the simplest thing would puncture the veneer and then all that defensiveness and anger would erupt through.

Well anyway, he decided that if he was going to live he was going to have to change but it was going to require a new life without secrets because the secrets were killing him. It was not going to be a new him, a new façade. Instead he was going to be the Paul Yong that God had intended. Also, he was going to immediately stop trying to fix himself or heal himself. He was going to let go and allow God through grace and love to transform him into the glorious child he was intended to be. It took him 11 years to heal from the inside out and build a new life and finally write The Shack.

We have come here this morning and so in some ways we are a lot like the sick man in the gospel who came to the pool looking for healing. If Jesus asked, "Do you want to be made well?" "Do you want to be made whole?" What would be your answer? Do you? Do you want to change to become the full person you were fashioned to become? Or are we sometimes a little bit sitting by the pool, waiting…

God will give you the strength and do the heavy lifting. In fact I think fighting against our core identity or constantly running to fulfill the expectations others place on us is frankly exhausting. So the question lies before us all: Do we want to become the person God has created us to become? Do we want to become whole? Do we want new life?