Day Thirty: healing

Word of the Day: healing

Image of the Day: moon in the daytime

Token of the Day: The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat

Gail’s words on healing:

moon-moon shines through in all her healing beauty to touch your life....

her presence, her touch, her love
waiting for you to open yourself
always present - in the day or night, obvious, fleeting, a glimpse, in part or whole, hidden, out of sight or in full view,
always there waiting for YOU

Healing - "physician heal thyself", "wounded healer", "Lord i am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and i shall be healed"

The dictionary defines healing as follows:

• To restore to health or soundness; cure
• To set right; repair: healed the rift between us
• To restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness.
• To become whole and sound; return to health.

It can have troublesome connotations for many of us. In the past i have been "healed" by a minister who prayed over me in tongues with no interpretation, having got me to write down my sins. He then told me to tear up my list and said i was healed. This happened after i had left a healing service in which we were invited to heal, and be healed by, each other. I had found the atmosphere disturbing, distressing, unhelpful. He had then sought me out. This experience left me feeling damaged, abused, fearful. Years later i shared the episode with a Fransiscan brother at Alnmouth Friary. He had offered me a simple anointing with oils which one of the ordained brothers would do. I accepted and found this experience profound, humble, simple, and lasting.

What do we mean by healing? Is it getting rid of those parts of us we dislike? Is it becoming physically perfect, free from any disability or deformity? I don't think so. I think the stories we get in the Gospels are to illustrate deeper truths. Jesus, and the Gospel writers, perhaps assumed we would use our imagination, intelligence and common sense when reaching conclusions about their meaning! Being blind and then seeing is, in my view, about developing insight (see yesterday's blog entry!). The man is ignorant of Jesus' teaching but then he starts to hear about him and wants to understand. Jesus offers the healing of love, acceptance and understanding.

I have difficulty with the very public displays of healing where folk are laid out in the Spirit, convulse, cry out, start speaking in tongues. I am not saying they are not authentic, they are simply not my way.

Healing might be a letting go of life. It might be providing someone with a peaceful transition through the curtain of death. It might be holding someone's pain until they can manage it themselves. Healing might be providing someone with the tools to change their circumstances so that they are no longer made ill by their work, home, relationship... We are all healers. Some of us use our hands, some our money, some our art, and there are many other forms of healing. Healing that does not involve the heart and the Spirit is, dare i say it, unlikely to be true healing that lasts, that affirms, that builds community and strengthens trust and love.

In today's Lenten meditation from Melanie Martinez, Staff Intern Pastor at Exodus MCC based on Iyanla Vanzant's One Day My Soul Just Opened Up she writes:

Let Me Remember...

I have a right to feel what I feel.
What I am feeling is a temporary experience that cannot harm me.
All things work to bring me healing.
People act out of the need for healing.
I can choose what I feel about any experience.
Forgiveness will provide relief and release.
Love will heal anything that is not an expression of love.

Copyright © 2009 Exodus Metropolitan Community Church

Healing underway in my life: trusting in God; getting to know, accept and love myself; accepting the love of others; beautiful sunsets, sunrises, ocean views; random acts of kindness; candles, music; hugs from safe people; the unconditional love of a cat...