Healing is a Journey

Healing is a Journey
by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved.

As the Church has appropriated some of the therapeutic stress of the culture we live in, the term “healing” has become somewhat of a buzzword among Evangelicals. Of course the Bible speaks often of healing; the Gospel promising us that, with repentance, our wounds will be bound up by the merciful hands of the Great Physician.

However Scripture also implies that the final healing of our emotional ills will not be complete until God wipes away our every tear at the Resurrection. Here on earth, in the meanwhile, we will always carry some degree of pain from wounds not wholly healed. So, for now, our recovery is a journey towards a final destination we have not yet reached. The reason Christians need to know that this is so is because bitterness often finds it place in the still unhealed hearts of people who have come to believe that perfect emotional health is possible right now.

It is true that a few of the “ancient saints” in our midst, men and woman in our churches who have known the Lord for many years, seem to have reached such a deep level of peace that it would be tempting to believe they have already “arrived”. But I suspect that if they were asked most would admit that they are not yet without pain and heartache. These believers may be much closer to the end of their pilgrimage home then we are, but they are still on the road. They have powerfully known the Balm of Gilead but they still are in need of it.

Christian Psychologists have sometimes been heard to complain about clients who expect that a lifetime of damage from emotional, physical or sexual abuse will be “fixed” in a few weeks of counseling. Such unreasonable expectations are sometimes defended by pointing to a Deity who Himself says that He can do the humanly impossible and indeed it is true, He can. However our Lord also has told us that his ways and ours are not always synchronized. God often, perhaps most often, heals over time. He is not the God of the “crash diet” or the “get rich quick” scheme. He is the God of the tree that comes to maturity only after growing for two centuries. He is the God of the tortoise as well as the Cheetah.

The process of losing our emotional imperfections will begin as we surrender our profoundly broken lives to Jesus Christ. But this will happen over a lifetime and not be completed until we leave this fallen world behind some day to be with Him. For now our healing is about getting better, not about getting there.