Healing

Last summer Harley W. asked me if I was planning to blog about divine healing.  I said I didn't have any plans to do so, and that I usually think about something a long time before I'm ready to say anything about it. I doubt that I'll ever be ready to make a comprehensive statement of any kind on the subject, but here goes with some small and simple offerings on the subject.

Earlier this week David uncharacteristically announced his subject for this Sunday's sermon, and asked people to pray about the subject and for him as he prepared.  At that time he also announced that a Sunday afternoon meeting was planned for whoever was interested in discussing the subject further.  I just got home from the afternoon meeting.

The subject came to the fore in this community within the past few months when a person who grew up in the area offered a seminar in which he promised to instruct people in the matter of divine healing.  A number of people from our churches attended.  Around the same time, a family known to all of us made plans that became common knowledge--to leave the Mennonite church and move to a place in California where they planned to align themselves with a school and ministry that focused heavily on divine healing.

Some of us looked on with quite a few reservations.  Others were obviously fascinated with what was being discussed.  Our ministers responded by talking directly with the presenter of the seminar, then talking with our congregation, and then attending the seminar.  Today's sermon and meeting were followups.

I have never heard anyone express reservations about the reality of supernatural healing.  In fact, quite a few stories of supernatural healing have surfaced recently among people I have known a long time. What I have also heard were reservations about the following:

--Making divine healing a primary emphasis
--Operating outside the accountability of a local congregation
--Limited openness to the counsel of others in the brotherhood
--Shortsightedness about where certain courses of action can lead
--Falling under the spell of "counselors, prophets, & gurus" outside the local church
--Self promotion
--Throwing out the baby with the bathwater in terms of  lifestyle changes

Today I was really blessed in hearing from Uncle Perry, Lorne K, and Keith M.--all of whom have lived with lifelong handicaps personally or have faced the reality of such handicaps in their child.  Perry spoke of having stood in a "healing" line at a campaign in Puerto Rico, probably more than 60 years ago.  He believed he was going to be healed, and it didn't happen.  It didn't shake his faith though.  He just went on doing what he was already doing--preparing to serve in ways his handicap would allow.  He's still serving at the age of 87, although he retired years ago as a public grade school principal.  

Lorne pointed out that Jesus Himself prayed that if it were possible, he would be spared the cup of suffering. He prayed also, however, that the will of God would prevail above his own will.  Lorne sees his own situation and his daughter's as following that path, desiring deliverance, but being willing to walk according to God's purposes, in order to accomplish His purposes.  Lorne also spoke of looking forward to the redemption of the body in heaven.

Keith referred to the Scriptures where Jesus healed the blind man.  Before that happened, people asked Jesus who had sinned, the blind man or his parents.  Jesus said the blindness was not because of anyone's sin, but that the works of God could be made manifest in him.  Keith spoke of the courage they drew from this account, and the reality of seeing God receive glory in many of the events that transpired throughout their daughter's physical challenges because of spina bifida.

Earlier, in the sermon, David had told the story of his older brother William, who showed great promise as a young man.  I remember him myself as handsome, friendly, and conscientious.  He and his wife fell under the spell of people who prophesied over them, and they eventually moved to a remote area in Wyoming with others in the group.  He was not allowed to have much contact with his family.  Then late one Saturday evening, his parents got a phone call from William's wife saying that William had died about ten hours earlier.

I remember hearing from one of his sisters that William's wife had written in the family circle letter prior to this that they were about to see a mighty miracle from God.  She had not mentioned William's illness, but at his funeral, she told the family that she believes he died of cancer.  Apparently the group had expected him to be healed, and the long delay in telling others of his death may have been because they were expecting him to rise from the dead.  In a strange twist to the story, the pastor who had held such sway over his followers called about 20 minutes before the funeral was to begin and said he was sick and could not officiate at the funeral.  The family was delighted to conduct the funeral themselves.  They had pastors and song leaders among them, and were not dismayed at the prospect of an impromptu assignment.  The irony of the pastor who claimed authority over all sickness having to call in sick was not lost on any of the family.

Over the past few days I've pondered how it is that people who are enamored with the idea of divine healing  or natural healing, or whatever . . . , can so easily deny the realities in their own lives when the reality does not fit their chosen "reality."  I think of my friend Beverly, who traveled to another state to help her friend who had cancer.  Before she left home, Beverly had heard from her that she was not feeling well, but that the cancer was subsiding.  Beverly, who was a nurse, saw a very different reality when she arrived.  The friend was clearly dying, and Beverly had the unhappy task of breaking the news to her and helping her prepare for death.  Both of the women were Christians, but only one had a clear sense of reality about the situation.  The friend died within a short time.

William's wife was apparently the same way.  Her husband was dying before her eyes, and she could speak only of the impending miracle she was sure would take place.

I heard recently of another situation that, under any other circumstances, would be described as a reality that really "stinks."  But I assume that saying that would be tantamount to confessing error in past decisions, and could not be entertained because of how such an admission would challenge "chosen realities."

In contrast, the "chosen reality" I heard about today from Perry, Lorne, and Keith enables them to move forward, embracing the reality of suffering, actively offering their circumstances to God for Him to extract from it glory for Himself, engaged with life, serving others, preserving relationships with those who have invested in their lives over decades of time, and rejoicing that God will, in the end, redeem all things perfectly.  Meanwhile, the walk of faith goes on--not effortlessly, but  purposefully.  Divine healing?  I'm sure Perry, Lorne, and Keith would receive such a gift in a heartbeat, but they already know what many younger and more idealistic people have not had the chance to learn:  Sometimes healing is delivered in packages wrapped with suffering, and the gift is revealed only after many layers of pain have been peeled away--perhaps the final one at the very end of life.  Determining to circumvent that process would be settling for second best.

I will continue to pray for healing whenever I face illness in myself or in those I know and love.  I hope I will remember also to commit myself to follow whatever path God appoints for His glory, even if it involves suffering.  The stories and teaching I heard today will help me do that, I believe.