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Health and sickness are of constant concern to everyone.
The lengths to which people will go to maintain the one
and avoid or cope with the other are studies in commitment
to a quality of life that allows them to enjoy their lives
or just to manage them. Experts are consulted and advice
given and taken to make the services in medicine, surgery,
drugs, cosmetics, food, drink, mental stimulation and
physical activity integral to modern living.
The Christian has another source of help for health and healing
in his faith in the God who heals and that has its basis in
the ministry of Jesus in the days of his flesh. His teaching
and concentration on healing the sick and disabled is one-seventh
of the Gospels.
James in his letter (5: 13-16) encourages his readers to
recognise their ability and opportunity to heal the sick.
He describes a method to be hued in the healing process -
laying on of hands, anointing with oil, and prayer.
There is the acceptance that care for the sick and disabled
is a priority of the Christian Faith, a duty on the faithful.
The faith claims to meet the needs of people spiritually
and physically. "Christianity is intensely practical.
It has no trait more striking than its common sense."
Sickness and suffering are seen as of the natural order of
life. It accepts them seeks to ease pain and to cure and comfort
the sufferers.
The Christian uses the skills and experiences of those committed
to relieve suffering and distress. He adds the divine dimension
to describe what God can do to help people in trouble.
The emphasis on Christian Healing has proved to be divinely
inspired. Many have had experiences of healing which can not
be explained without the recognition of divine intervention
and sometimes where medical and surgical knowledge and skill
were ineffective. While there are always questions about cures
claimed to be miraculous - there are bogus healers and healings
- some are beyond human explanation and disputation.
In healing, as in life generally, there is mystery, the unexplainable
that leave us bewildered as to who lives and dies when Christian
Healing is practised. We are constantly reminded that the
one certainty in life is its uncertainty. We can be confident,
though, that God wants only our good and that our good is
in our relationship with him as the controller of our lives.
Many of our ills are self inflicted, the effects of human
weakness, negligence and ignorance and they are often psychosomatic,
the consequence of the mind on the body. Wrong thinking spawns
foolish actions with unfortunate consequences.
Positive thinking is essential to healthy living. There are
these maxims to be heeded to our advantage
- to keep well - keep busy;
- age is a state of mind, "We need never surrender
to age."
- refuse to worry; be not serious overmuch; enjoy the frivolous
and the humorous; for "cheerfulness is the principal
ingredient in the composition of health."
- recognise your limitations; realise your potentials; think
on the possibles, skip the impossibles.
- be calm; be careful; be slow to condemn; be quick to congratulate;
be gracious; be thankful for small mercies; value relationships
and friendships.
Above all have faith and trust in God who has promised "I
will never leave you or forsake you." So that in every
situation and circumstance of life we have the confidence
that God is with us in it. He will see us through the problems
and the pains.
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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