Healing and the Call of Fools

Why do some faith healings I am called to participate in turn out as desired and some not? Is there a point to healing oil and laying on of hands? Frederick Buechner’s words struck a chord with me.  I pray they help someone struggling with the presence, or apparent lack thereof, of Jesus the Healer in their quest for peace. As we pursue healing in Jesus’ name, may we always be willing to be ‘fools’ for Jesus.

“…Nowadays,…(miraculous healing) has usually been associated with religious quackery or the lunatic fringe; but as the psychosomatic dimension of disease (is) taken more…seriously by medical science, it has regained some of its former respectability. How nice for God to have this support at last.

For those who prefer not to believe in (miracles), a number of approaches are possible, among them:

 -The idea of miracles is an offense both to our reason and to our dignity. Thus…miracles don't happen….; -If the medical authorities agree that a healing is inexplicable in terms of present scientific knowledge, you can simply ascribe this to the deficiencies of present scientific knowledge.; -If otherwise intelligent and honest human beings are convinced, despite all arguments to the contrary, that it is God who has healed them, you can assume that their sickness, like its cure, was purely psychological. Whatever that means….

…You can always give (healing) a try. Pray for it. If it's somebody else's healing you're praying for, you can try…laying your hands on her as Jesus sometimes did. If her sickness involves her body as well as her soul, then God may be able to use your inept hands as well as your inept faith to heal her.

If you feel like a fool as you are doing this, don't let it throw you. You are a fool, of course, only not a damned fool for a change.

…Don't try too hard to feel religious, to generate some healing power of your own. Think of yourself…as a…clogged-up pipe that a little of God's power may be able to filter through if you can just stay loose enough. Tell the one you're praying for to stay loose too.

If God doesn't seem to be giving you what you ask, maybe he's giving you something else.” (First published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words; Edited for length; italics are mine)