Healing and wholeness

“God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” … no truer words have ever been written in holy writ or out. I’ve come to appreciate them more and more, but when you are young, as we all were once in our life time, and have all the answers to life, as we all did at one time in our life, we just believed that as long as we had our life and our health we could conquer anything and anyone. And so, it was with that kind thinking that I took up my next ministerial appointment back in 1976.

Actually, the appointment kind of came as a little surprise since the cabinet had already re-assigned me to return to First UMC, South Miami as the associate minister, but a new church treasurer came on board and didn’t believe that the church could actually afford a senior pastor, an associate pastor and a Director of Christian Education – one of us had to go. The lots fell to me, the DS was called and Dr. Buell informed me that it didn’t look promising since it was just days away from the second Sunday in May when pastors and/or Pastor-Parish Relations Committees would be making the announcements concerning the next pastoral appointments. God works in mysterious ways …

My appointment was as the associate minister to St. Luke’s UMC, St. Petersburg. The senior minister was an outspoken charismatic pastor. I was advised that it would be wise for me to read up on the charismatic movement sweeping across the face of America and was making some inroads into our denomination. It had to be a quick study since I would be thrown into some responsibilities that I had received little to no training in seminary such as leading/teaching during the church’s Tuesday and Thursday morning communion/healing services. God works in mysterious ways …

I continue, to this day, to thank God for placing in my path one of the sweetest and caring people I’ve been privileged to know. She was an Episcopalian military chaplain’s widow. Her faith was deep and profound. She assisted this young, naïve associate pastor in understanding the biblical concept of “filled with the Holy Spirit,” along with the church’s traditional approach to healing. She was one of the “favorite” attendees of the senior pastor, but he would have been a little more that surprised at her depth of understanding and appreciation for what was really taking place at the church on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Little did I appreciate just how much her tutelage would come into play in my family’s life just in a couple of months. God does work in mysterious ways …

That fall we began a terrible and spiritually challenging journey as we moved our son from All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg to Shands Hospital in Gainesville. It was journey that would last 18 months, bring us into a personal relationship with a fantastic, caring physician from what is now called the Czech Republic and into a long lasting relationship with some unusual individuals who were (and are) willing to share every ounce of their personal lives with their new pastoral family. Nothing against the good people at First UMC, South Miami, but we couldn’t have been at a better church to go through what we had to go through. God really does work in mysterious ways …

I came to appreciate a full biblical understanding of prayer as it relates to healing. Usually most individuals go to God in prayer expecting the Almighty to instantly perform whatever they might be requesting via the instrument of prayer. As they pray they are very specific as to what they think God needs/should/ought to do in the area of healing instead of just lifting the person(s) or situation up to the Creator to bring about his best for the parties involved. I began to understand that healing comes in many forms – physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, as well as the most complete healing that can be offered by heaven – death itself. God does work in mysterious ways …

Through this painful process I also began to understand and appreciate the founder of my denomination, John Wesley. What a great teacher with a tremendous grasp of the biblical truths. One of his approaches is the Prayer of Relinquishment – as in the case of our son we simply prayed, through our tears, that since Tim was a baptized child of the kingdom, he was God’s child not ours. At his baptism we became only his caretakers. Tim belonged to God – fully and completely. Therefore, whatever God wanted to give to him in the form of healing we were willing to accept it since we had already relinquished into God’s care Tim’s life and soul – in life or in death God works in mysterious ways...

And so, just shy of his ninth birthday Tim received a complete and total healing as he entered into life eternal. As we drove back from Gainesville late that evening we were greeted by members of a loving church family and caring neighbors. We were close to them then and are still close to them today. They are part-n-parcel of our family who were also able to celebrate with us when our adopted daughter was baptized by the district superintendent in the same sanctuary in which that same district superintendent was the celebrant in holding Tim’s memorial service. And thus, you can see that God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform …
Thank God for the performance of all of his miracles … and the mysterious ways which he uses to bring them about. If it was up to me I would probably just mess it all up!

Quote for today: The Ladies Home Journal (September, 1981) asked, "In whom do you trust?" Responses were: Walter Cronkite 40% of the vote; Pope John Paul 26%; Billy Graham 6%; God 3%