February 9, 2015

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him…he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” John 5:2-6

“I asked G*d for strength, that I might achieve….
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do great things….
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy…
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men…
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of G*d.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life…
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for…
But everything that I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered…
I am among all men most richly blessed.”

(Found in the clothing of an unknown dead Civil War soldier)

“Health means capability…and freedom. It is strength for human life. It is the integration of the organs for the exercise of psycho-physical function. Health is the strength to be as man…Sickness is partial impotence to exercise the functions of body and soul. It hinders man in his exercise of them by burdening, hampering, troubling and threatening him, and causing him pain. But sickness as such is not necessarily impotence to be as man. So long as one is still alive…and…health is the strength for human existence, even those who are seriously ill can will to be healthy without any optimism or illusions regarding their condition. Hence it seems to be a fundamental demand of the ethics of the sick-bed that the sick person should not let himself cease to be addressed, and to address himself, in terms of health. ” Karl Barth (1886 – 1968) Church Dogmatics, III, 4

There will come a day when all of us will lose some ability to do a basic human function. Some of us are born with a disability – some acquire a disability – some of us will have some ability stripped from us by accident or disease. Until we have an ability taken from us do we really appreciate what we have lost? For those born without a particular ability, they have no sense of loss, no sense of their “lacking”, because they experience life as they exist. For these people, as I have come to learn from working with people with congenital and acquired disabilities, I have listened to them talk about excelling at life because they make the best with what they have. If we have never had an ability, we cannot really appreciate it as a loss. I cannot play the piano – this is not a loss – it is just something I have never had the ability to do.

We all want to be healed when we are experiencing dis-ease. We all want health, riches, power, life. But when G*d gives us infirmity, poverty, weakness, and loss, can we see these as a blessing? And, because we might be blessed with weakness and illness, that does not mean that we are less than. Loss does not equal less. Take time today to talk to G*d – not to dress G*d down for what you do not have – but to thank G*d for all of your blessings.

Pastor Dave