Resting In the Attack of Acute Sadness

Sorrow is a word that sounds like it feels,

There’s a torment within our hearts,

And we hate what it reveals.

When grief’s off the charts,

And a sorrowful season it seals,

Be patient until new life starts:

God’s at work and He heals.

***

HEALING is not always, or all, it’s cracked up to be; not in all circumstances, though some healers will decry this statement. But I have proof. Some people I know accept that they cannot be fully healed, and that management is healing enough – God’s provision of healing for them. Indeed, some within this number have found ‘healing’ by a mode that most ‘normal’ people could not conceive.

This raises a cosmic irony regarding healing. Some are healed so well that they may live with the pain the rest of their lives! This may seem a ridiculous notion, but think of the myriad number of saints and martyrs who had more joy of the Lord than most of us ever experience.

Some Flavours of Eternal Healing

When we are overtaken by sorrow or something that cannot be reconciled, the prospect of being healed of something a lot less seems laughable – if only we could laugh.

When more serious issues than we can contemplate barge their way into our lives, our petty complaints and differences can be seen for what they are; an utter contempt for what God has given to us in this life.

This is why healing takes on a massively different dimension: we are polarised. We cannot help but get connected to the root of things, for the pain brings a sense of reality few actually see. This is a true thing. If you have suffered to any great extent – even for a limited season of several months to a few years – you should be able to attest to this; if, that is, God rocked your world so much that you had to respond in a way of true discipleship – to follow without question.

That, for me, is true healing: not that someone is relieved of their pain or their petty or significant complaints, but they are delivered from themselves in order that, finally, they might live with themselves in peace. That is a fuller portion of healing.

***

Some are healed so well that they may live with the pain the rest of their lives! For these, resting in the midst of emotional and spiritual attack has become their mode. Could it be that the best of healing transcends the source of struggle?

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.