Visitations & Healing

Wednesdays are flex days for me in the sense that I will often leave it open to do the thing(s) that seem most valuable or pressing. Through the end of last week, over the weekend and during the first few days of this week, I compiled a rather lengthy list of folks in the church that I needed to go visit. Well, yesterday I spent the majority of the day going from house to house visiting sick members of our congregation. It is always a great joy to get to visit people, be in their homes and bring them encouragement. Every time I do visitations, I always feel like it was so special and important!

Yesterday impacted me. I visited 7 different people. In one day I visited 2 people that are likely living out their last few days on earth, 2 people that struggle daily with significant life-altering illnesses, 2 people that have no idea of how far the cancer in their body has spread and are just waiting for their diagnosis and 1 in the hospital.

I ended my workday yesterday torn between 2 strong feelings. I felt honored that God has called me to this ministry where I can bring hope and love to people and hear the words "you made my day" 4 times in one afternoon. On the other hand I felt desperate...desperate to know how to really love and care for people who are in such physical turmoil.

The famous question is just haunting me again recently: Do I run around promising God's healing or do I run around telling people that God is gonna do what he wants to do?

My theology of healing is simple (or at least this is the simple version):

1. God can heal anyone he chooses of any infirmity with the sound of his voice or the touch of his fingertip.
2. Jesus told his disciples to pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done." God's will for our bodies and our will for our bodies are not always identical. ...And His wins!

That said, I still feel desperate to seek the Lord for healing in the lives of people in our CCF community and in our families. I think I am going to declare our Saturday Night Prayer this week as a time of prayer for healing. I might preach on this Sunday if I can't shake it.