The Guy in the Back

He sat quietly in the back, not really singing during the time for worshiping God in song, not coming forward to put anything in the basket during offering, but when it was time for prayer? when the opportunity to share prayer requests was given? This gaunt, heavily tattooed, well-spoken young man stood from his place at the back and introduced himself:  

I am X, and this is my life...

Though his introduction was brief, his request bore the depth and weight of all he'd endured and the endless expanse of all he wished to do. Within the week, X was dead. What we knew of this humble man we knew: there would be nothing more to learn.

I've mentioned before, sometimes our church services, during those less formal moments, can track more like an AA meeting. My name is ___, and I am a drug addict; or, My name is ___, and I was recently released from prison. It's one of the things I love most about our fellowship. This small gathering is a safe place where secrets are revealed --not exposed --in the hopes of finding healing. I hope X found his healing.

Isaiah 53:5 tells us the scourging Jesus received prior to His crucifixion is for us, the means of our healing. Physical healing? Perhaps, but I think to wish for that is selling short all Jesus accomplished. The things this life --this physical, temporal life --has to offer are wonderful. When God created this place, He deemed it good. Would a perfect God have created anything less? It was man's choice for something less than, the choice for something immediate and tangible and "pleasant to the eyes" that brought a curse, that brought death and destruction to mankind and this place in which we live. Is the healing I want physical? Is the reward or restoration I seek something that can be touched or tasted? Isn't that settling? X didn't ask for something so small. X had a vision for something much better for himself. And X had no clue, I'm sure, his days in this physical world would be so few.

Jesus has something more for you, something greater than mere physical health. And that's not to say, He will not cure you of cancer or regulate your a-fib or stop your seizures. But there is a healing that surpasses anything this world has to offer, a restoration, a reconciliation of relationship with our Creator, the One True and Living God. Jesus' death and resurrection guarantee a clean slate, the forgiveness of all our sins; it guarantees the repair of a once broken relationship with the God of the universe; it guarantees our adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High; it guarantees His Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Helper, living and working in us to transform us into the best humans we can be in Christ; and it guarantees our inheritance, the presence of God with us and us in His presence eternally!

What needs to happen for you to find your healing? for you to choose to seek Him and know Him and obey Him? What needs to happen for you to do what he's called you to do? to find a place where people will surround you in love and pray for you? to stand up where you are, introduce yourself, and speak the desires of your heart to the God who listens to the broken? I hope you find your healing.