We all need spiritual healing)

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Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. -Acts 14:8-10

When I was first inquiring about Orthodoxy, a friend was telling me about the teaching he received from his priest about biblical interpretation. When you read the evil of men, it is your evil, your identification with them, your chance to confront yourself and your shortcomings.

I feel the same way about the sick and the lame. I see this man who was intently listening to Paul's words, who believed to the point where he had faith to stand at Paul's words. I also think about my own spiritual state, about all of ours. Are we not all born like that from birth? But we also do not stand like that, at least not I.

There is another story of another man in the bible named Naaman. This man was struck with leprosy and was told by his Jewish slave girl that in her home country, there is a great prophet named Elisha that could heal him.

But when he arrived, Elisha commanded Naaman to wash in the river Jordan, a river notoriously known for being filthy. The man was furious at the prophet's words:

But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 2 Kings 5:11-14

Yes, this seems more accurate to the way that God heals the soul. Naaman's servant even said that it was "something great" that Elisha asked him to do. But Naaman's pride was in the way of what God had prepared for him. He was expecting extravagance. But God required humility.

 The miracles within the scriptures are not just about physical healings. They are about the state of our whole being. The sick will eventually have their health fail and die. The miracle is the restoration that occurs because of what God has done. How often do we read in the Lives of The Saints those who look on the lives and miracles of the faithful and believe?

Perhaps you are suffering something, perhaps it is with or without cause. Regardless, it can be used for your benefit, to draw you ever nearer to God. Remember the man crippled from birth. Remember Naaman who left his country and people to be restored.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Does not the Orthodox tradition teach to treat all hardship, even that which is caused by our own sins, especially that which is unjustly put upon us, as a call to repentance, as a re-orientation, to further exemplify the virtues we possess and to break up the fallow ground of our hearts (Hosea 10:12)?

Beloved, let us follow the example set before us and humble ourselves, knowing that where God has us is where we should be (1 Corinthians 7:20) and knowing that God looks upon us as a father upon his child(Psalm 103:13-14).