It’s been quite a while since I’ve resumed these mediations/reflections based on the Upper Room Daily Reflections. I’ll try to jump start again .
THE HEALING LOVE OF CHRIST continues to be holistic. Sometimes we pray to be healed in a certain way, and we discover that God seems to be working with a completely different area first. Why? Because we are created as whole beings. We moderns are rediscovering what the ancients knew well: when something is wrong, every part of us is affected. Whether we complain that we are physically sick, emotionally adrift, spiritually bereft, or socially oppressed, we respond with every part of ourselves: body, emotions, mind, spirit, and sociability. When we pray for continued healing, we may well be challenged to attend to each of these realms. My longtime experience in the healing ministry has taught me that human beings are wired for lifelong growth in which God shapes each person’s healing individually and uniquely, weaving in and out of each part of our being.
– Tilda Norberg
Gathered Together: Creating Personal Liturgies for Healing and Transformation
We need to return to the love of Christ constantly. So often, we tend to demand that other people do what only Christ can do adequately. This doesn’t mean there are those whom He can work through, but it would be too much to expect another human being to be the source of our healing. There is only one ultimate source. Others are helpful, and in fact I think very often God sent! But for the most in depth work, we cannot and must not hide from the one who sees us as we really are, and foresees who we can become.
For that to happen, then no area will be left untouched, and that’s going to take time, and delicate attention. I recall of stories during my younger days of how people have dramatic changes in terms of their behavior after a religious conversion, or even for the irreligious a defining moment seems to push them towards a needed u-turn to make changes in their outlook in life.
What interests me these days, are the untold stories of secret battles of even the so called “greatest” of saints whom are on a life-long journey of healing in different dimensions of their make up. Most of the time, people see them on stage, or in the height of their success, but the real battles remain unseen from the public eye.
and yet, this is where the true knowing of self, and God as well as a deeper appreciation of the complexities of our humanity and sinfulness occurs. The good news is tonight, God is very much part of the shaping process. I trust his workmanship. So, what’s next for us? Let him do his work . his way, I suppose, trying to be a smart-aleck is not going to be to smart after all. And that is a key realization. A critical one