How often does anyone reflect on God when everything is honky-dory? I would be referring to the REAL God here, not the fuzzy god of the endless shopping list Western Christians know so well! In our human condition nothing brings us back to reality faster than pain.
Given that pain and injuries do exist, at least as experienced by me!, then is there an alternative? Are there examples in Scripture we can look to?
The Bible has many stories of healing and with one exception I can think of as I write this, all revolve around the same issue. Sorry, you have to wait to find out what is common across almost all of them!
All of what I will be sharing will be from just one year, in a very conservative church where “miracles” do not occur. Yes, there were lots of broken bones, accidents, sprains and tears, none of which seemed to heal miraculously. Maybe God just used time and natural processes in healing these days? I was not comfortable with that thought, because my Bible says there are miracles - when God is working. Maybe He was just not working in my church?
I wondered and God answered:
My mentor in my early Christian years was hit by a truck while bicycling to work. He literally was turned into ground meat. Not expected to survive, due to bleeding in his brain, his girl friend and I went to see him, to say good-bye. We prayed over him and he was healed. No he was never the same and across the decades I was to observe that the man he is today would not have been possible without that traumatic accident. His pride had to be broken, his athletic body destroyed, his deep voice broken up with a stammer – all to make him an effective witness whom would point to God and not his own strengths.
One of my really good friends in the college group at church was cleaning his VW carb, when the driver of a passing car flicked a cigarette out the window. He became an instant fire ball. I had seen many from living on bases whom were horribly burned, I knew he was in big trouble of even living. The object of much prayer, he healed so well that he did not even scar! Was there a change in his life? Oh yeah! Given a long time to think, he straightened out his life and made a real commitment to God. Hmmmmm…. I started to see a pattern occurring.
Poor Dutchman put his Opel Kadet through a police car late one night. He also put his face THROUGH his steering wheel. They had to cut the wheel a part in order to free his head! No miraculous healing however the healing process was what slowed him down sufficiently to think through his life and get stronger with God. The man before was out of control, the man after became a Gideon.
Another friend was a little on the wild side. Alcohol, drugs, etc were just a part of normal life. But, he was interested in church – or was it just the girls? One night he managed to eat a telephone pole at 120 mph in his Camaro. They picked him up with shovels. With almost all of his bones broken, there was little hope for his survival. He was miraculously healed, make NO mistake here! He did a 180 degree change in his life and went to Bible school once released from jail. A very broken man walked out of that jail into God’s hands.
I used to be a climbing guide and for Christmas 1974 I took my best friend up Long’s Peak in Colorado. Pretty easy climb if you take the western route, but in winter time very unpredictable. Five hundred feet short of the summit, and at a particularly dangerous spot, my friend fell. I saw him start his fall, spun around and swung my ice axe with all the strength I could muster! The axe slammed into the ice, the pick went through my right leg, shattering the bone, the rope pulled tight, the pick was wrenched from my leg and we hung there. It was about thirty below zero, wind chill about 60 degrees below zero, my right leg was broken, my friend was hanging 180 feet in the air, we were five miles from the car and 6,000 feet below us. This was not good. My partner climbed back up to me, each tug on the rope jarring me back from the blackness of shock and we really prayed for a miracle – both of our lives depended upon one! It was not instantaneous, I remember having to tie the ice axe to my leg so that the two halves would not flop around. We had to finish the climb (shorter route out) with me hopping on my left leg, rappel 2,000 feet back to the trail and then walk out several miles. By the time we reached the car, the bleeding had stopped and the leg was whole. No one could tell either of us this was not a miracle! In those hours of walking I thought on the reality of God and how I was not living like He was real and the most important thing in my life.
And the greatest wonder I ever saw was from a gross piece of stupidity; in a rubber band fight in college - one of the guys lost an eye ball. I am talking flattened, squished; nothing is left in the eye socket with people throwing up - sort of injury. We rushed him across the street to the hospital, by which time he was totally blind (something about the other eye being empathetic (?) ). I prayed over him, my church prayed for him, the college group prayed for him and when I went to see him the next morning – his eye was restored! I was utterly freaked out! So was he. So were all of the doctors and nurses! And he did receive Jesus because of this. Two weeks later he was dead, murdered while trying to right past wrongs. God knew his number was up and what it would take for him to believe - to salvation…… Incredible!
So have you seen what was common across all of these occurrences? God calling the lost to Him, God calling believers back to Him, by showing His power through healing to whatever extent is needed.
God also does the opposite, not healing. Sometimes, like my friend Bruce splattered by a truck while bicycling, not completely healing is what was needed for him to have the ministry God wanted for him. For Bruce, he went into prison ministries – something he would never have done had he not suffered as he has. He was a scientist and very successful. For me it took shattering my spine to bring me back into youth ministry, which I swore I would never do again. Both of us were healed just enough to perform the tasks before us.
I would wish healing on everyone. I would wish that God would grant someone, anyone, the gift of Healing. I would wish to be completely healed from my spinal injury just as I am sure you would wish for yourself or those whom you love. How I would wish God would grant me the ability to heal and take away pain.
But from what I have seen, God performs a miracle because He is calling that person and/or witnesses to Him. Sometimes the miracle is by not doing the miraculous and showing His strength through our weakness. Sometimes we just bear the marks of our own humanity. Miracle or no, our daily walk is our daily witness to everyone around us. Think of how your pain will allow you the ability to share with others living through similar situations.
Two years ago a long time friend died from breast cancer. I am sure she would have liked to have had a miracle healing occur, as would her husband, and the whole church. But, that was not how God had planned to use her. It was a rough five year road for her and at her funeral over 600 attended! Even her husband was completely unaware at how she had been active on the internet offering encouragement and insight to others facing this terrible disease. Quite a witness there and it would seem she turned tragedy into a ministry…..
It is hard for us to look past the present, to see the possibilities of the future. When you are in pain or living in pain each moment can be rather distracting or too “fuzzy” to even remember due to medications. But, it is how we face those moments and what we do with what we are experiencing that counts. But it is not all about us either, thinking of my friend’s recent death, I was amazed at the love and compassion her husband had for her. I never could have thought it of him….. That was a miracle in and of itself…..
