Its no surprise that I've been thinking a lot about suffering and healing with news of peers and close friends being diagnosed with cancer or supporting their own families through the difficult treatment process recently. And my visit to a retirement community yesterday and talk with dear friends about "practical issues" about aging and death also made it clear that we all, whether we have the hope of Christ in our lives or not, need to have a theology and a perspective and convictions about such difficult topics. It occurred to me yesterday that the Christian retirement community I visited painted a picture of what is most necessary in the challenging season life when loss becomes a lifestyle...and that is the Hope of Christ and the encouragement and support of others living in that reality.
Equally, I return to Cali with a new confidence in Christ about such things because what I witnessed and heard of what God was doing with regards to healing through prayer. And I know the same God is shows no favoritism to the Brits. He is the same here and there.
I've also know that God doesn't always choose to heal our earthly bodies-sometimes he allows the physical illnesses to give Him the opportunity to heal our souls and to bring reconciliation in our relationships. The fact that He doesn't always choose to heal here and now often has kept me from praying for healing. The disappointment and the potential to stir doubt and even the mocking of others paralyzed me along with the lack of belief (both in faith and in theology) that God can heal and that He desires to restore His Kingdom and that was not just a single event that took place in the garden of the empty tomb when He broke the curse of all death...and not just culminated when Jesus returns to bring everything back under His authority and protection. All the wonder of God's saving power and making things right in the world and in all aspects of life including the restoration and making right of our relationships with the God is included, but not exclusive. It's all-everything-the good, bad and the ugly are moving towards the extreme-towards the 'best', the 'worse', and the 'abhorrent'. The wheat and weeds growing wildly in the same field as it says in the Gospels. So, with all naiveté set aside, I'm compelled to approach the throne with confidence and plead with the Lord to heal and to turn this wretched illness called cancer for His glory's sake-and if He decides not to heal on our terms, let the suffering not be wasted and good only that God can bring about.
The funeral service of my dear former youth leader after a long battle with lung cancer has reminded me not to waste my sorrows. In fact, I found out last night that there's a book with that title-and one called "Don't Waste Your Cancer" which intrigued me even more. For that is precisely what my former youth leader E refused to do-waste her cancer. She told everyone and anyone from strangers in the waiting room, medics in the hospital, neighbors, etc about the hope of Jesus - and though God took her home in her case, she experienced firsthand God's grace EVEN in the midst of the pain-grace in the relieviation of pain and discomfort and negative symptoms as she recounted in numerous periodical email updates.
In humility, repentance, confidence, and the authority granted by Christ alone, I ask the Lord work in might ways to heal both body and soul and to bring many to praise Him because they can't seem to help but do so in light of the wonder of cross, the empty grave, and the good gifts our heavenly Father LOVES to give.
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