Daily Musings: Love and Grace: Twin Healers

Healing can’t be rushed; it really can’t. It doesn’t do any good to struggle. Everyone wants their emotional and physical pain to vanish immediately. The trauma may relate to social connections, or to our bodies.

We can try to speed up the timeline, but that’s like beating our head against a brick wall—or worse. I could tell you story after story about that. This quote says it all:

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”—A.W. Tozer from his devotional

I’d like to present two cases of dealing with physical or social setbacks. In both situations, the sufferer was able to rely on love and/or God’s grace to pull them through:

Longstanding Illness or Injury (The Apostle Paul)

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong”--2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 (KJV)

Tough Relationships (Adelaide Arauz)

This is a time of polarizing opinions and unchecked emotions, in many cases. Certain individuals are quick to state their opinions in a blunt, cruel, way. This is especially apparent on social media as well as in the news and entertainment industries.

No matter how hard we try, everybody isn’t going to understand or appreciate what we stand for. Because we’re imperfect humans, we have the ability to give and receive pain. Love and forgiveness are the only ways to push beyond the hurt.

My friend Melissa Arauz’s sweet daughter, Adelaide, is a great example of such an attitude. I have been given permission to share her thoughts on the subject:

Adelaide in her life has come across people who are sometimes very unkind to her and she had this person in her life that didn’t like her. It was apparent, vocalized, and it hurt especially over time. Adelaide could’ve chosen to just ignore it, avoid it, or put it aside and not care. Adelaide hadn’t done anything wrong. Adelaide didn’t know why the person didn’t like her, I didn’t know either. And I highly doubt we’ll ever know why, it just was. Still, she worked at being a friend to this person and at each and every opportunity, she took it. We would even set up activities and opportunities for her to simply be a friend to this person whenever she came across her and we had her to our home and set up other things too. And do you know what happened?

Well, those two are now the closest friends ever. They have so much fun together. Any animosity that was there before disappeared as they slowly spent time together making kind memories. And I think that is the true blessing of the living of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. God doesn’t burn bridges, but rather He helps us to build them. I honestly believe we all have in us those deep desires to love, because we are loved by God. And God doesn’t limit His love and is always reaching out to us.

There was no hypocrisy there. Just the pure love of Christ that was already rooted deeply in her, that she nourished and with that stubbornness that is part of who she is too, she was determined to choose a better way, to be that light and with that light she had and felt, nurture another’s light who had gotten a little dim. And that’s just how she’s always been, she loves all—the stranger and the familiar, the wounded and the weary, the happy and the sad—and she shows that love through action.

My Conclusion

Your breakthroughs are taking forever. You passed the “frustration” stage long ago; you’re in the “ready to throw my hands up and surrender to unfairness” stage now. You have to take action…Wait! That won’t work. We have to let God work out miracles in his own time and way. He doesn’t take demands, just so you know. Remember Psalm 46:10—“Be still and know that I am God.”?