Healing

The story of Lisa was just that. A story. I'm sure what people don't realize is how Lisa is all of us.

Our hurt and pain permeate throughout our souls like cancer. I know so many people (kids, teens, college students, and adults) who have deep afflictions. They have been hurt while growing up either by the community, their friends, their peers, family members, older people, etc. They have suffered abuse or neglect of any kind: sexual, verbal, physical, emotional abuse. They have been abandoned by family members or friends through divorce or being ignored by a parent or friend. They are lonely. They suffer self-esteem issues because they never had their need for love met when they were younger, or they were told they were fat or ugly or not good enough. They don't feel adequate. They don't feel special or important. They don't feel captivating or that they have what it takes.

And so they turn to things that numb the pain but don't make them better. Cutting and self-mutilation, drugs and alcohol, eating disorders, obsessions, sex and lust and pornography, boyfriends and girlfriends, recklessness and attention-seeking behavior, just to name a few. In our hurt, these things become our aspirin to numb and forget about the pain. We tell everyone we're fine. These actions are not condemned by society. They seem okay, so they'll work for us.

But if you are sick, wouldn't you go to the doctor to become healthy again? If you've had a headache for more than a week, wouldn't the logical thing to do be to go see what's wrong and get help? You wouldn't mask the disease with pain killers. You would (hopefully) want to get to the bottom of what is going on in your body so you can get better.

I feel like so often people have deep hurts and needs but instead of getting them healed and getting better they take "pain killers" to get by. Drugs, sex, eating disorders, will only get you by for so long. The pain comes back in full force afterwards. We need to go to the Doctor. It just seems like the sensible thing to do if you want to get better.

This fall my brother ended up going swimming in a hot tub. Like actual swimming. Underwater and everything. He had a bad earache afterwards and he refused to go to the doctor. When you're 7 years old (and maybe even 70 years), the doctor is kind of a scary place. You get shots there. They shove those popsicle sticks down your throat when it hurts. They draw your blood with a needle in your arm. But we finally persuaded him that if he wanted to feel better and not have pain in his ear, then he needed to go to the doctor. He got ear drops and felt better a week later.

The Doctor's is not always a fun process. Sometimes it's painful. He looks at what's wrong with us and runs some tests which sometimes last quite long. He usually prescribes us with medicine, but the medicine doesn't always cure us the next day. Or perhaps radiation treatment for our cancer that lasts months, even years. Healing is a process that takes time. But in the end it is worth it. You feel healthy and happy again.

The Healer can cure you. You just need to let Him.