Necessary Pain

When we are Living in Truth we jettison all Unnecessary Pain, but we can still expect to encounter Necessary Pain. Necessary Pain will always be part of a mortal world. But unlike Unnecessary Pain, when we encounter Necessary Pain and endure it well there are actually benefits and blessings that come to us. Research has shown that strong emotional events such as a death of a close friend or family member, a child who does something wrong, or even life events that also have a positive side to them such as sending a child away to serve a mission while painful can lead to deeper self-awareness and to spiritual and physical well-being if we endure them well.

None of us go through life without stress, loss, or sadness. Those are Necessary Pains in life. But if we turn to the Savior in prayer and scripture study, patiently wait to be healed, and accept what’s happened, we learn more about ourselves and about life.

We all know that when we’re experiencing Necessary Pain, it feels like it will never end. But the Savior uses time to help us heal so that we again begin to feel the happiness in life. When we experience this it becomes for us the greatest miracle the Savior has ever performed.

Healing

Good news! At first the doctor thought my foot was broken, but the x-rays showed that it is not. There is a lot of swelling in the joint and tissue damage, but no break! For a couple of days after the fall I ached everyplace-my hip, shoulder, foot toes, arm, and hand. I have several bruises and one scratch, but the amazing thing is watching this body heal.

Without me directing it or even knowing how to make it happen somehow my body is actively healing itself. Already, just four days after the fall, swelling is decreasing, bruises are diminishing, and pain is disappearing. It is such a miracle! Likewise, every day my body breathes, my heart beats, my blood circulates, my cells regenerate and I am doing nothing to make that happen. If God can make all that happen, certainly He can direct the rest of my life also.

all this reminds me that there is Someone in charge who knows what He is doing and that I am being cared for at all times. It is only my own thinking that gets in the way. When I relax, trust in God, and cling to the positive in life things take care of themselves in good ways.

Things eventually work out for good. As Paul explained to the ancient saints, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28).

Healing

In the first few chapters of the New Testament in the book of Acts Peter and John teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and are harassed, imprisoned, beaten, and encounter many other other problems. But despite the adversity they continue to teach anyone and everyone who will listen. At one point (Acts 4:19-20), Peter says to the Jewish leaders who have demanded that he stop teaching of Jesus Christ, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

This is interesting in light of what we have discussed about Living in Truth. Peter and John acknowledge the truth and declare boldly that they can only speak truth-the verity of what they have seen and heard. Being special witnesses of Jesus Christ they have seen and heard some marvelous things--things that you and I most probably will never see. But we have heard the testimony of those who have seen, and like the people gathered to hear Peter and John we have the opportunity to discern by the power of the Spirit what is truth and what is not. Therefore, we determine truth not only by what we have seen and heard, but by what we have felt from the Spirit.

Thus when Peter says to the lame man at the temple, "Silver and gold have I none' but such as I have give I thee," You and I can think of it as an apostle speaking directly to us. We, like the lame man, are needy, and apostles are in essence saying to us today, "I don't have money for you, but I have a special witness of Jesus Christ that I will share with you, and that can heal you."

Healing

Many years ago psychologists insisted that the only way to emotionally and psychologically heal was to dig deep into the past, root every hurt out, and then examine it. However, during the last few decades psychologists have realized that not only does digging into the past not work, it often creates more damage and more pain. People have even been known to imagine things that didn’t actually happen simply because of the prodding and suggestions presented by the psychologist. In other words, they have discovered that prodding into the past is like taking a wound that is healing and cut it open again every day in order to see if there is anything else in there that wasn’t discovered before. That only keeps the wound from healing and creates the possibility of infection and other problems.

This newer approach to psychology is consistent with what we learn in the scriptures. Never in scripture does the Lord instruct us to dig into the past. Healing the past is part of what the Atonement is all about. He knows we have no power or ability to change the past. What happened, happened, and no matter how much we fret over, worry about, or strain to remember the past it will not change anything. That is our Savior’s job. All concentrating on the past will do is distract us and keep us from doing our job which is to move forward in the present moment doing the very best we can today.

This is illustrated beautifully in the story of the adulterous woman who is brought to the Savior by a band of men determined to have her stoned. Instead of responding to the men’s demands, the Savior stoops down and writes in the dust of the pavement. Finally he stands and says that if any of them is without sin, he should cast the first stone. (John 8:1-11). Condemned by their own hearts, the men depart one by one. At this point the Savior approaches the woman and asks if anyone condemns her. When she answers that no man does, He says to her, “Neither do I. Go thy way, and sin no more.”

She is accused of a terrible sin which usually means she has a past that includes hurt and pain and sorrow. This is most likely not the first time something bad like this has happened to her. But instead of saying, examine your past and see what has pained you or you won’t be able to get better, the Savior simply instructs her to go forward and not sin any more. The adversary wants to hold us prisoners to our past. Jesus Christ knows that He is the only one that can heal the past, and that if the adulterous woman or you and I will move forward and take care of each present moment, He can heal even the past. That is one of the great promises of Jesus Christ; a promise that delivers great hope to each one of us.

A Healthy Sabbath

The people asked Jesus,

"Is it lawful to heal

on the sabbath days?"(Matt 12:10).

Jesus proclaimed that it was.

So find ways to heal today!

Touching the Fringes

A desperate woman once made her way through a throng of people in order to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe so that she could be healed of a twelve year infirmity. Since she bled constantly, she was considered unclean under the law of Moses and would have been ostracized by the people around her. We are also told that she had spent all she had on physicians and so she was in a state of poverty. And being a single woman in a patriarchal society meant she was defenseless and unprotected. When we stop to think about all these conditions, our hearts break for her and how sad her life must have been.

But she had hope. Knowing that she was unclean and shouldn’t touch Jesus or ask Him to touch her, she decided to simply touch his garment. The Matthew account of the story (9:20) tells us she touched the hem of his garment, but that is misleading. Jewish men wore an outer garment, a four cornered white tunic that was later called a tallit. At the four corners of this tallit hung fringes or tassels called tzitziyot which had 613 knots in them and one blue thread. The knots stood for the 613 laws given by Moses—365 “thou shalt nots” and 248 “thou shalts.” This reminded everyone who saw the tassels of the commandments and the importance of keeping them. The blue thread represented the Spirit of God and the authority that came from the Spirit. This talit is the predecessor of the modern shawl worn by Jewish men when they pray.

When we understand the symbolism of the tzitziyot, we recognize that the woman with the issue of blood had a great deal of faith. Not wanting to make the Savior unclean by touching Him, she had decided that if she could merely touch the symbol of his authority she would be made whole. And so she touched one of the tztiziyot she was healed.

And what do we learn from this? When our faith “touches” the power or authority of God, we too are safe.

He Will Come!

In the book of John we are told that one day while walking through the streets of Jerusalem the apostles encountered a man that was born blind. While passing him the disciples asked Jesus what caused the blindness the man's or his parent's sins. Jesus explained that sin wasn't the cause. The reason the man was born blind was so that "the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:4). Jesus then stopped, spit on the ground, made clay, anointed the eyes of the man with the clay and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man does as he is instructed and is able to see. It is an amazing story that has so many lessons in it that this is usually all the story that gets discussed. But there is more.


When the Pharisees find out that this blind man can see, they are angry and they cast him out or, in other words, they excommunicate him. His joy at being able to see is now doused by the anger directed at him and the fact that he will no longer be part of the congregation and society that has been his entire life. You can imagine his feelings. Perhaps he even wished he were blind again!


But what happens next is for me as important as the fact that he was healed. Hearing that the man has been cast out, Jesus searched for and found the man and introduced Himself to the man as the Son of God. In this way he assured and encouraged the man to endure the persecution and adversity of being shunned by his own people.


Likewise, Jesus will find us in our darkest moments. He will come to us and He will encourage and assure us. Rather than wallow in self-pity or other negative emotions, we can expect His arrival with its sweet assurance and love.

Getting Better

Hurray! The cancer spots are disappearing. The silver-dollar size scab on my cheek and the quarter size scab on my lip are healing very well. What an amazing experience to get up each morning and see the progress—slow but sure. It has made me think a lot about the processes of growth and healing that are part of life. It is an absolute miracle how it all happens. Just think; I have done nothing except keep the site clean, and yet each day I watch the wound disappearing and healthy skin beginning to show through. Soon there will be nothing left of the ugly sore.

It makes me realize that I should relax and trust in God more. Without my help He is changing this ugly lesion into smooth, healed skin. If He can do that surely He can also heal and guide the rest of my life if I submit myself to Him instead of trying to do it all myself. He wants to help me. He wants to heal me. It is me that sometimes gets in the way of that help and healing.

Safely In The Stall

If you’ve been reading this blog very long, you know how much I love the words of Isaiah. He was an amazing man and an incredible teacher. His words are poetry and prophecy at the same time. One of my favorite things about him is how he encourages and uplifts. But there are other Old Testament prophets that I haven’t talked about before that also lift and encourage. One of those is Malachi.

One of my favorite verses from Malachi is “But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall” (Malachi 4:2). You have to think about this for a few minutes to really understand what Malachi is saying. First of all the play on words with Sun substituted for Son. Christ is the Son and He is the Light—the Sun—the bright light of righteousness. He will arise from the dead with healing in His wings. Throughout scripture wings is used for a symbol of power. There are many symbols that are used to denote power and each has a slightly different emphasis. Hands denote power in that they do work. A head denotes power in that it houses our brains where we choose what we will do. A wing specifically refers to the power to escape earthly enemies just as a bird can lift itself into the air and escape predators—as long as it stays in the air! Likewise Jesus will give us the power to escape our earthly enemies and lift us to God the Father.

But the last part of this verse is my favorite. In this day and age of cities and suburbs most of us don’t recognize the amazing promise being given us that the righteous will “grow up as calves in the stall.” Cattle that roam the range have to forage for their own food which is usually grass and weeds. They have to search for water and constantly be on the lookout for predators and a place to rest safely during the night. They have no one to care for them. But a calf in the stall doesn’t have to forage. In human terms, it as if he has room service. His meals are brought to him and placed in the trough. He is not only fed hay, but often grain. Water is constantly available. The calf in the stall has shelter from the elements, and not only a fence, but a caretaker who protects him from predators. More importantly, a calf in a stall often gets special treatment such as grooming because it is going to be shown at fairs or other events.

In short, what Malachi promises is that if we will turn to Jesus Christ He will heal, empower, nurture, protect, and care for us. What more could we ask for?

My Medicine

Last night my grandson, Eli, came to visit while his parents went to a meeting. I’ve been so very fatigued all week and barely able to function that I’ve found myself constantly reaching for a Truth Tool to help lift and sustain me.

When Eli came I went out on the patio and rested while I watched and listened to him and his Pops play Indiana Jones. The first thing Eli wants when he comes here is his Jones hat. My husband has two such hats and he dons one and Eli wears the other. Once the hats were on the imagining started and there were snake hunts, wrestling with the bad guys, tiptoeing through spider infestations, and every other peril you can think of. But with Eli peril is never a negative experience. It is a wondrous adventure where laughter prevails and delight rules.

I have never in my life had such wonderful medicine! Eli’s laughter was infectious and I can’t even count how many times I laughed right out loud just from hearing him laugh. I smiled for hours as I watched him and was startled by the healing and strengthening power it brought me. If it weren’t for their unpredictability, I’d say the best thing we could do for cancer patients in a cancer ward is let five year olds run loose! It was the best I’ve felt all week. When he was exhausted, we made s'mores over the fire, then cuddled up on the lounge to watch the stars and he fell asleep beside me. It was the perfect evening!

To be honest, the power of his laughter has surprised me. I can still feel it working its healing magic inside of me. If you are hurting, go where there are children and listen to them laugh. A child’s laughter is medicine to the soul.