“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:3-5
I think we all have an idea in our mind of what healing looks like, but sometimes healing has to start with pain. My chiropractor is fond of saying that pain is a great motivator. Without pain we don’t realize there is a problem, and it takes pain to motivate change. Even healing itself requires a little pain. So, what does healing look like?
The Root of the Problem
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Matthew 23:27-28
It started with a little tooth. I hadn’t really noticed the sensitivity to cold, or if I did, I quickly forgot it and moved on with my day. A routine cleaning uncovered some decay, so I scheduled an appointment for a filling. It all seemed fine on the surface, but somewhere in the roots trouble was brewing.
The Holy Spirit often tries to warn us with gentle prodding. He points out sin or areas of weakness that we need to improve upon, but we close our Bibles and go on with our day. Everything looks fine on the surface, but somewhere in the heart trouble is brewing.
The Heart of the Matter
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Tooth sensitivity grew more frequent and lasted longer. Over the next few months I had more sinus headaches and pain in my neck and jaw that I thought was TMJ related. On those days I cried out to God to heal me of these chronic headaches. Once the headaches receded I would blame it on the weather and go back to my regularly scheduled programming.
The Holy Spirit worked in much the same way with sermons and blog posts that poked and prodded. I took notes, marked scriptures, and made a mental plan to improve. Then, I returned to my regular routine, blaming my failure to improve on a busy schedule.
The Truth of the Matter
Finally, there came a night when the tooth sent waves of pain, waking me almost every hour. I was waiting at the dentist office when he opened the next morning. I soon discovered that the tooth I thought was fine had decayed down to the root and was about to abscess. It was the cause of many problems even though it looked fine on the surface. After it was pulled, I realized that not only did it get rid of the pain in my tooth, but also the pain in my jaw and neck. There is also now the potential to straighten my teeth that have been crooked all of my life.
As C. S. Lewis point out, the Holy Spirit shouts through the pain to the heart of the matter. While everything may look fine on the surface, there are things that need my attention. It’s like I am playing a game on level one and God wants me to move to a more challenging one. The challenges cause growing pains, but they also bring us closer to God.
Looks like Healing to Me
In a movie I watched recently, the theme was a repetition of the phrase “it looks like healing to me.” The “it” was different for each person, but they all had to walk through a moment of pain to find healing. They had to let go of their expectations and submit to the will of the Father. Healing may not look like you expect, but the end result is always more than you’ve ever dreamed possible. I never thought pulling a tooth was the beginning of correcting multiple problems, but… it looks like healing to me and that’s all that matters.
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I loved this! Healing doesn’t happen until the problem is discovered/uncovered. It’s amazing how fast we begin feeling better when the problem is addressed. Such a great object lesson here Ms. Linda! Thank you!