Tag Archives: Healing

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 32

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When I refused to confess my sin,
    my body wasted away,
    and I groaned all day long.
Psalm 32:3 (NLT)

Like many, I’m a fan of The Godfather saga. The first two films in the trilogy undoubtedly rank among the greatest stories ever told on film. I’m also not alone in my belief that the third film of the series, while an okay film, does not come close to the quality of first two. Nevertheless, The Godfather III has moments of brilliance, and one of them came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter.

In the film, an aged and unhealthy Michael Corleone seeks out one of the Cardinals in the Vatican to elicit his help with corruption that is taking place in the Holy See’s upper ranks. The stress of the situation is too much and in the moment of their meeting Michael suffers the beginnings of a diabetic seizure. The Cardinal, recognizing the spiritual agony as well as physical ailments Michael suffers, explains that when the soul is in agony the body cries out. He encourages Michael to unburden his soul in confession, something that Michael has not done since childhood. A lifetime of sin and corruption clogs his heart, but the Cardinal slowly urges Michael to let it out. It is one of the most poignant moments in the entire story arc of the three films.

Holding tight to our guilt and sin in an effort to keep it secret is holding on to spiritual cancer. It may not be noticeable at first, but slowly it begins to eat away at our heart, mind and spirit. Symptomatic effects begin to show up in our relationships, our thoughts, our emotions and even our bodies.

Confession is not only good for the soul, but it gives way to an inflow of Life that can bring healing in a myriad of ways.

Today is a good day for confession. Let it go.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day John 14

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Source: jonragnarsson via Flickr

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.” John 14:18 (NLT)

Last weekend Wendy and I were in a production at the local community center. As part of the development of our roles each actor in the play was required to create a character study. The director then printed edited versions of the character studies and hung them in the gallery for audience members to peruse during intermission. As I was getting the gallery ready before the performance of Sunday’s matinee one of my fellow actors was reading through all of the character studies.

“It’s interesting,” he said, “how many of these characters had fathers who were missing or dead.” Sure enough, a majority of the actors had written that their character’s father was unknown, dead or had abandoned them.

Along the journey I’ve come to recognize just how large of a hole is torn in one’s soul when a child feels or is abandoned by their father. The effects go deep and are long lasting. I had to ask myself how many of the actors in the show last weekend were projecting their own personal pain into that of their characters.

I don’t think I’ve appreciated how this profoundly personal issue is intertwined in Jesus’ story. Jesus makes a point of telling His followers that He is not abandoning them, even as He prepares to be taken from them for execution. Despite what they may think, feel, perceive and experience in the coming days, they are not abandoned – they are not orphaned. Jesus even encouraged His followers with these words less than 24 hours before He Himself would take on the sins of the world, suffer a cruel death and cry out from the cross “My God, why have you abandoned me?”

Today as I prepare to observe Jesus’ betrayal, death and resurrection in the coming weekend, I’m struck that the core human fear of abandonment is woven throughout the story. I’m also reminded that while the scars of abandonment run deep they are not lethal, nor inevitable, nor impervious to healing. Addressing and healing, once and for all, the pain of abandonment is at the core of why Jesus came to us in the first place.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day John 9

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David Tennant used the skull of pianist Andre ...
David Tennant used the skull of pianist Andre Tchaikowsky for Yorick's skull in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 9:39 (NLT)

Wendy and I love Shakespeare, and we love to see Shakespeare staged whether it’s our local Pella Shakespeare Company‘s performance in the park or the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. One of the things that I’ve learned in watching the Bard’s work is that you always want to pay particular attention to the fool. The fool is never quite as foolish as you think he is, and quite often the fool winds up confounding the wise.

That’s why I’ve always loved today’s chapter. It has all the qualities of a great Shakespearean scene. On one side we have the wise, learned, pompous religious leaders with all of their power, wealth and education. Before them stands a lowly, poor, once blind beggar who is not the fool they think he is. Jesus gave physical sight to the blind fool so that the spiritual blindness of those who claim to see could be revealed. That’s great drama.

This morning I’m chewing on the reality that Jesus, while repeatedly reminding his followers that they were not to judge anyone, continually explained that He came to judge. I find that we love Jesus the lover and healer, but no one really wants much to do with Jesus the Righteous Judge. Today’s chapter reminds me that Jesus not only came to give sight to the blind, but to judge those who think they see for their spiritual blindness. Jesus said He came to both save and condemn. One without the other makes for both a boring story and a weak character.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Colossians 1

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For God in all his fullness 
      was pleased to live in Christ, 
 and through him God reconciled 
      everything to himself. 
   He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth 
      by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Colossians 1: 19-20 (NLT)

I love the blues. I love the blues because the blues tend to say it like it is without holding back. The blues speak truth. One of my all time favorite blues numbers was penned by Bob Dylan. It’s called Everything is Broken. The song is a reminder of the broken state our world and our lives are in. We live in brokenness.

For anyone who’s journeyed far in this world and tried to repair your own brokenness or the brokenness that’s around you, you know how impossible it is. Just when you think you’ve got it all together it all falls apart again. You pick up a few shattered pieces of your life and a few more pieces fall to the ground. No matter how hard you try you can never seem to get control. It slips through your fingers and other broken lives wreak havoc on your own.

One of the things I’ve love about Jesus is that He came to reconcile; to take what was broken and fractured and to make it whole. He came to patch up the broken relationship between us and God. He came to meet us in our brokenness, to love us in the midst of our out of control lives, and to offer healing and restoration we could never find or achieve on our own.

All we have to do is open up our hearts and receive what He’s offering.

Random Thoughts

Tom’s 30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 6

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Superfriends
Image by Digital_Rampage via Flickr

If you could possess one supernatural ability, what would it be?

When I first read this question I thought to myself that I’d like the ability to become invisible. But, then I thought about Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. He could become invisible when he put on the ring and look how he turned out. It would probably not be a terribly positive supernatural ability. Too many temptations to use the ability for all the wrong reasons.

Then I thought about flying. Which would be really cool and save me time and gas money (in good weather). But, if I’m the only one who could do it, then it doesn’t profit me much. Think about it. If I wanted to go anywhere with Wendy then she’d have to follow me below in the car like she was the chase vehicle for a hot air balloon and what’s the point of that? Just because I could fly wouldn’t give me the strength I’d need to carry anybody with me over long distances like Superman.

So, I think the supernatural ability to heal others would be my pick. I’d love the ability to instantly make a fractured mind, a diseased body and/or broken spirit whole again. It wouldn’t make me comic book cool. “Healing Man” just doesn’t strike me as bright spandex and cape worthy. Nevertheless, it would make a huge difference in the lives of others.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Leviticus 13

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“Any person with a serious skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair loose and unbrushed, cover his upper lip, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as anyone has the sores, that one continues to be ritually unclean. That person must live alone; he or she must live outside the camp.” Leviticus 13:45-46 (MSG)

The reason for all of the designations of sores, rashes, boils and fungus in today’s chapter is pretty clear. The people of Israel, millions of them, were wandering through the desert, pitching their tents as they went. They had no formal system of government or organization. Anyone who has watched the aftermath of disasters on television knows that large groups of people in precarious situations are in need of provision and health considerations. By setting out some basic health regulations around infectious disease, the law of Leviticus was protecting the people from getting killed off in a preventable epidemic.

But, consider the poor individuals with an infection. No penicillin. No anti-biotics. They were cast from the society to live on their own. Not only scarred by their physical ailments, they now had the scarring of their souls which came from being cursed and separated from family and friends. No more warm embraces from loved ones. No more intimacy with a spouse. Wherever they went they had to scream “UNCLEAN!” Imagine the psychological effect of having to scream that word all day, declaring to the world your own curse and shame.

I can’t read Leviticus 13 without thinking about the time a man with leprosy came to Jesus. Imagine the outcast described in today’s chapter: torn clothes, face covered, body covered with the ugly white scars of leprosy. Imagine the man who has cried “unlean” for years and watched people, including his own loved ones, flee from him in horror. Imagine the man who can’t remember feeling the touch of another human being.

A leper came to [Jesus], begging on his knees, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”

Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy.

And that’s the whole of God’s message in a nutshell. We are all unclean, separated from God and made outcast by this infectious spiritual condition of sin. But Jesus comes to us, and we fall on our knees before him uttering “If you want to, you can make me clean.”

And he touches us. In that touch is healing. In that touch is life.

“I want to,” he says. “Be clean.”

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and archeon
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 44

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Reeve000282 - WW1 amputee with pilons

“This is the Message of God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: ‘So why are you ruining your lives by amputating yourselves—man, woman, child, and baby—from the life of Judah, leaving yourselves isolated, unconnected?” Jeremiah 44:7 (MSG)

I’m beginning to perceive that this life journey, at its very essence, is simply about Life and Death. Not in a physical sense, for physically we all end up in the grave. But spiritually, I believe that moment-by-moment, day-by-day my soul is expanding and contracting in an ebb and flow of Life.

I loved the word picture Jeremiah gave the Judeans in today’s chapter. Why “amputate yourselves” with what you’re doing? That’s exactly what my sin feels like. My own repetitive behaviors scrape or hack off another chunk of my soul and the life bleeds out. Sometimes it’s an oozing scrape while other times it gushes as if I hit an main artery. With each hack my soul gets smaller. I now have less space for Life.

I love that Jesus’ miracles restored peoples’ bodies, but I believe that his miracles were works of performance art that provided a word picture of the true miracle he was about to perform. The truly miraculous work of Jesus is the restoration of our scarred and bloodied souls which we have willingly hacked away. For once our souls are restored, we can experience Life in greater abundance.

Will today increase Life in me, or drain Life from me?

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 147

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Celebrity visit. He heals the heartbroken and bandages their wounds. He counts the stars and assigns each a name. Psalm 147:3-4 (MSG)

Many years ago I was at a Minnesota Vikings game in Minneapolis. It was back when star wide receiver, Randy Moss, played for the Vikings. I remember watching him catch a touchdown pass. On the side of the field was a severely handicapped boy in a wheelchair. After running, leaping and making a spectacular catch, the famous player ran immediately to the boy who, in this life, would never know the joy of running, leaping and catching a football. Moss bowed down and gave him the football.

I am always glad to see when celebrities and big name athletes take the time to make the day of children who are sick or soldiers serving their country far from home. I was reminded of it when I read the third and fourth verses of Psalm 147 and was struck by the contrast. The God of the universe who creates the stars and names each one still has time, love and energy to heal the broken hearted and bandage their wounds.

It's quite common to feel lost and alone in this crazy world. How comforting to know that the all-powerful God of creation, whose exhaustive presence knows each star by name, also cares for me so much that he intimately knows each hair on my head.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and kawetijoru

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 144

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The Playhouse. Blessed be God, my mountain, who trains me to fight fair and well. He's the bedrock on which I stand, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight, The high crag where I run for dear life, while he lays my enemies low. (Psalm 144:1-2, The Message)

I just returned from spending the weekend at the lake with a friend. It was a guys weekend, and I had the blessed experience of watching my friend melt before my eyes as he slowly decompressed. The tightness and intensity of his daily battle gave way to the peaceful effects of water, wind and wave. His eyelids grew heavy with weariness. His body relaxed. Stress yielded to healing slumber.

Our family's playhouse at the lake has always been a place of refuge. A quiet waystation, well behind the battle line of daily life, where weary individuals can find safety, rest and healing. I get to experience it regularly myself, and it's cool to share it with others in need.

As I read the lyrics to David's song, I was struck by his line "the high crag where I run for dear life." I thanked God for a place of retreat to which I, my family, and my friends, can run. A place to feel God's healing presence away from life's daily battle.

 

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