The fall
I lost my footing three feet up and fell, crashed down onto my side, bashed my head on the tarmac. Dazed, I lay there to check I could still move everything, then staggered into the house with a broken rib and lay on my bed.
It’s excruciating now to cough or sneeze. All sorts of bruises and cuts hurt, even lying in bed. I suppose heavy old guys should not behave as though they were eighteen. But, no, I didn’t go to get a medical check-up – I didn’t deem it necessary. And I‘m not looking for pity or sympathy. Quiet acceptance of my temporary disabilities, however, and the odd bit of help now and then, I consider a blessing. Let me go through what I must as I heal with the Lord, who is the One in charge.
His protection
My wife and I had committed our day to the Lord. He has sorted us out a lot in the past, which has made us endeavour always to stay close to Him. We have given our lives to Him. He promises to protect us from all evil and to guard our lives (Psalm 121). We are involved in what He is doing. So why was I suddenly flung to the ground? I didn’t have the answer, except to say that in the circumstances it could have been very much worse. I reckon the Lord protected me as I fell.
It took a while to figure it out. I was sensing that the Lord was guiding me to make one or two moves without my full understanding. Then I began to see what He was indicating. There was something in my character that needed to be removed immediately – sin that I had not really been aware of. I am not going to tell you what it was because it is private.
But let me tell you that I am glad that He took me to task over it. I am healing. God is true to His word: “I have wounded but I will heal, and none can rescue from my hand” (Deut 32:39). Thank you, Lord. Thank you for loving me and equipping me always to be with you. This is progress.
Progressivism
Another sort of progress is evident all around us: people on the make, people gaining influence through respectability, behaving in a smart and fashionable manner, glossing over their muck, blind to the truth of what is really going on, figuring things out by cleverness, sceptically ignoring the Creator of the universe, proud of the conclusions that have developed in their minds, trying hard to provide ever-better solutions for apparent difficulties and working for advantage to be successful in this world.
Working to avoid suffering, inconvenience, divisiveness, offensiveness, trouble, pain and death uses a lot of energy.
Working to avoid suffering, inconvenience, divisiveness, offensiveness, trouble, pain and death uses a lot of energy. Working hard to survive without consulting God is stressful. But adrenalin produced by such work excites the progressives, maintains interest and keeps them going. Their clever progressive endeavour is nevertheless under the direction of the prince of this world who, despite appearances, is actually not at all interested in the ultimate good of humankind.
Every heart secretly longs for the shalom of God but His peace and wholeness cannot be obtained by human effort. It can only be found through a relationship of living trust with the person of the Creator of the universe, whose love endures for ever and whom Jesus called Father. Whilst the righteous live by their faith, the proud never rest (Hab 2:4-5).
Dualism
Ever since people first called upon God, Satan’s plans for destruction of God’s people have been advancing in parallel with the real progress of those people who listen to Him, learn from Him in their suffering, and accept His guidance. Major pagan currents, which can be traced through ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome, resonate with indigenous paganism all over the world and have reached remarkable maturity all around us today. In the light of Jesus, this paganism can be seen as decay masquerading as progress.
Characteristic of such paganism is a refusal to recognise the God with whom Abraham developed a relationship, the God of Israel. Endeavouring to gain spiritual power by propitiating alleged divinity of one sort and another, people took upon themselves the task of trying to make everything all right. The result is an escape into abstract reasoning, a work of the mind, away from what is going on in each person’s physical body, and a belief that there is a divine ideal which human minds can evolve and strive to emulate, which some people these days call the ‘Absolute.’
According to the teachings of classical Greeks, Gnostics, Neo-Platonists and many modern thinkers, natural reactions of the flesh are to be escaped from and denied.
According to the teachings of classical Greeks, Gnostics, Neo-Platonists and many modern thinkers, natural reactions of the flesh are to be escaped from and denied. Thus, pure thought is divided from our disturbing human reactions, creating a dualism. According to this thinking, fallen human nature is to be denied because it is thought to defile the soul and interfere with pure thought, and with absolutist humanist ideals such as liberty, equality, fraternity and social justice that are far removed from the equity of God. For God declares that His purposes do not stand by works, but by Him who calls (Rom 9:11-12).
Suffering and healing
A perceived need for escape from the natural physical body into the rational mind will arise quite naturally from ignorance of the God who heals. One of the first declarations God made to the people of Israel after they came out of slavery in Egypt was, “I am the Lord, who heals you” (Ex 15:26). These days God will heal our natural reactions if we recognise and accept His only begotten Son, God with us, and listen to Him as we suffer.
Secular provision of welfare and medical services can save lives and be astonishingly helpful, of course, but it is God who heals.
Wonderful medical technology has been developed – mostly by scientists who deny God, striving to solve the mysteries of disease through their own logical reasoning. Secular provision of welfare and medical services can save lives and be astonishingly helpful, of course, but it is God who heals. For those who trust Him, His healing reaches beyond anything secular science can provide, “dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
There is no need for Christians to accept pagan dualism. God knows everything (1 John 3:20) – including all about our inmost disturbances – and He will help us bring them to light and will heal them. There is no need for us to escape from our suffering human bodies into mental abstractions. In illness or calamity, the very first thing to do is seek the Lord and be guided by the God who heals.
John Gordon was formerly a GP, a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst. He is now a licensed minister in The Order of Jacob’s Well.
