How Does Healing Come?
By Rev. Kathleen Kohl
As we look around our world and our communities, we see much suffering. We all have had our own personal struggles with suffering as well – sometimes with health issues, sometimes with our relationships, sometimes with grief over a whole variety of losses that we experience.
Suffering and loss is a normal part of life, and yet, suffering always brings us up short? Why me (or my loved ones), why now, how am I going to get through this? What is the purpose of this suffering? Is God in the middle of this pain with me? And, we wonder, how does healing come?
Countless stories in the Bible remind us that suffering and healing are processes, they occur and come to completion over time. And, we get through this time and experience best when we are in connection with others…when we have others to journey with us through the pain and dislocation that it causes.
One of the most vivid stories of this process can be found in the Book of Job. Three friends journey with him in this time of great catastrophe. We know these friends are helpful to him at times and not so helpful at other times. But they go with him and help him over time to clarify his pain and the direction he ultimately needs to go to work through the terrible loss he has experienced. And, we know that his ultimate destination is his connection with God where he learns anew that he belongs to God and that God is in control. His healing is from God but those friends help him get there.
As a pastoral counselor, I am witness to many such fellow travelers who seek out my presence in the midst of their crisis. When I listen to them, to their stories of loss and grief, they begin to feel heard, they begin to feel God’s presence and can begin to claim the healing for which they yearn.
Providing presence and a listening ear is part of your tradition of the church in every time and place. The stories we could all tell about sitting with one another in crises and the stories of healing from the Bible remind us that we become God’s presence when we are willing to listen to others and stay with them in their grief, or when we are willing to share our struggles with others so that they don’t feel so alone.
Our stories affirm that healing does not come in isolation. Rather, they tell us that healing comes , often in deeply spiritual ways, in the connections we have with God and our neighbor – when we come together to listen to and share our times of struggle – when we hold one another in our pain – when we are willing to simply be with each other when there are no words to say.