Praise God! 

I’ve been healed! 

Not just once, but TWICE!

After struggling for months and months with persistent knee pain (due to a fall suffered while walking two VERY excited Wheaten Terriers on a trail through Custer State Park), I got a shot of cortisone from my on-call ortho guy and VIOLA! A pain free knee!

HALLELUJAH!

And now the severe spasms in my right trapezoid muscle (that’s the one that runs up the side of your neck) are miraculously GONE! 

Yes, it took two visits to Urgent Care, one visit to the ER, several courses of muscle-relaxing and pain-killing drugs, a massage, physical therapy, exercise, heating pads, ice packs, and even a couple of injections, but it all worked together for a 90% restored neck.

PRAISE JESUS!

And speaking of healing, let’s not forget to thank God and celebrate my lovely wife Joan’s recent five-year anniversary of being cancer free! Or shame on me if I fail to give credit where credit is due for the definitively divinely directed healing of her left knee. The original, defective knee was removed four weeks ago today and COMPLETELY REPLACED with a brand new version made of titanium!

THANK YOU, GOD!

“Now, hang on a second there, Brother Bible-Basher!” I hear you saying. “What’s up with all the praising Jesus and thanking God mumbo jumbo going on here? All this healing you’re talking about was clearly done by highly skilled and trained medical PEOPLE! There’s absolutely nothing supernatural or spiritual about any of this! Get down off your pulpit and give science the credit it is DUE!”

Of course you are right. 

Kind of.

In every one of these examples of healing Joan and I have experienced lately we were blessed to be cared for by trained and highly capable medical technicians. But in every case, we also found them to be warm, compassionate, and tender-hearted humans. 

And so, I ask: where do you think all this SKILL, this COMPASSION, this KNOWLEDGE, and this DEDICATION came from in the first place? 

• Where might you locate the source of the dream that first stirred in the heart of that young woman or man and put them on the path to grow up to become a healer one day?
• What kind of spirit or energy compelled those ancient ancestors of ours to dive deeply into the depths of biology to try and solve the riddles of the human body?
• Where did the courage come from that caused them to believe they would one day be able to reverse the course of deadly disease?
• What strange kind of power keeps them going day in and day out when they encounter heartbreak, tragedy, failure, and disappointment?

Here are my two cents on the subject: the same ONE who designed the intricate and miraculous self-mending properties of these Marvelous Mechanical Manifestations we walk around in every day is the same ONE who taught and empowered us to fix them!

I also firmly believe that same ONE designed this world to exist as a perfect laboratory of complex COLLABORATION. Collaboration between flesh and spirit. Collaboration between human and divine. Collaboration between ephemeral and ethereal. 

You see, in any successful collaboration, each partner has a role to play. Collaborations fall apart when one of those partners falls asleep at the switch, leaving the enterprise completely in the hands of the other. Collaborations thrive when the partners know and fulfill their roles. 

And what we know is this: God never fails. God never sleeps. God never slacks off. God never asks for additional PTO. God is forever faithful, perfectly fulfilling ALL of God’s promises. 

And so, whenever we see an example of a failed collaboration, guess where it broke down? And no, I am not suggesting that failed healing is always because of sin or human incompetence. I am merely suggesting that WE – as one half of this complex collaboration – are limited. God – as the other half – is UNlimited.

And yet, despite all these limitations of ours, God somehow chooses to continue to trust and partner with the likes of you and me. Forgiving our shortcomings, doling out second, third, fourth (and more, if necessary) chances, and loving us beyond our ability to comprehend. 

And if THAT’S not a miracle,  I don’t know what is!

Abundant blessings;