I wanted to share this blog post I read today – I’ve never met her (I know & love her parents, though!), but there have been so many instances where I’ve read her blog and I feel like she is writing directly to me. I love how the Holy Spirit moves in and thru the body of Christ to speak to us!
absolutely needed to read this post today to regain perspective – may our brokenness magnify the cross!
http://thesesoulstirrings.blogspot.com/2013/03/jesus-was-broken-for-me.html
I went to my naturopath doctor yesterday (Dr. Dan) for a normal, maintenance check-up.
-my ankle has never fully healed from spraining it a year ago. I finally decided I might as well ask him if he could test it to see if it wanted something. sure enough, my ankle was angry. Dr. Dan tried a lot of different tests on it and wasn’t finding what it wanted. but he didn’t give up. he tried a 3rd round of tests and BAM! found a match. I’m now taking a total joint supplement to try and heal ‘er up the rest of the way. expensive bottle of supplements…but worth it if it heals it back up.
-apparently, the parasite I had back in january is a hardy little booger and is still clinging on for dear life. I don’t feel bad for the thing. he must die. the fact that there is a parasite in my body creeps me out and if I dwell on it too long, I’ll probably throw up. which may not be a bad thing. maybe it’d dislodge him… hmm… that might not be a bad idea, actually…
HA – totally kidding.
Dr. Dan put me on a stronger parasite killer supplement, but he also told me I should claim my parasite on my taxes (as a dependent). I thought this was a marvelous idea, maybe I’d actually get money back. except I already filed my taxes. I could, however, file an amendment… but we (me, Dr. Dan, and my friend Kendra who was also there) decided that then my parasite required a name. so we named him Pablo. “Helll-lo Pablo, you keel my eensides…preeeepare to die!” (in my very best Spanish accent)
-and finally, the most exciting news from my visit (because normally I wouldn’t blog about my trip to the naturopath dr because generally that would be lame) --- after being born with no sense of smell and living my whole life with really no concept of what “smell” is like….drum roll please… I still can’t smell. HA! NO! wait! Dr. Dan says he can fix my smeller!!! WHAT?! YES! apparently he did this laser-to-the-back-of-the-head treatment on a patient like 10 years ago who had no sense of smell and it fixed it! I’m not totally convinced it will work for me, but I figure I might as well try it. so he is going to do some research and get back to me. if he’s able to fix my smeller, trust me – you’ll know. I will probably post approximately 1,057 different blog entries about things I’m smelling.
after all this, however, I want to be clear that my faith is not in human doctors or their supplements/antibiotics/whatever remedies. God is the Ultimate Healer and He is the one to receive all glory and praise. when He heals, He’s good. and when He chooses not to heal, He’s still good. but I do really like the naturopath way of going about taking care of our bodies – doing it the natural way using natural elements of God’s creation.
I was having coffee with some friends the other day and we were laughing about one friend’s interesting morning visiting a new church. he had met this man and soon after starting a conversation with him, the man pulled up his shirt and started showing my friend his scars and telling him stories. needless to say, it provided an awkward yet interesting situation. :)
it reminded me of when I was in Norway a couple years ago. I was in Norway for a few weeks as part of my YWAM DTS outreach. part of our group was serving at this one church while we were there, and one evening we were hanging out at the church’s café talking with people. this guy, Sven, comes over to our table and starts joining in our conversation and all was going well until I asked about one of his tattoos on his arm. it was of a scorpion and, having lived where scorpions are huge and disgusting, I was intrigued by why he would want a scorpion on his arm. he said something about how he just liked them, and before I knew it, he had taken his shirt completely off to reveal a myriad of tattoos all over his body – eager to tell me about each tattoo. so here I am, sitting in a church café with a shirtless, tattooed guy standing in front of me. some might consider the situation awkward. I would confirm that yes – it was, indeed, very awkward. not wanting to offend the guy, I tried to act interested in his tattoo stories even though inwardly I was hoping someone would come to my rescue. thankfully, before too much time had passed, another guy from the church came over and told Sven he needed to put his clothes back on – and then apologized on behalf of his friend. :)
though both of these situations were humorous, they also made me think.
church so often becomes this place where we wear our good clothes and put on our masks each week to try and show that everything’s fine. we try to hide our dirt, our wounds, our scars. we run into someone from church at the grocery store and hope they can’t tell we totally just lost our patience on someone or had just been having an emotional breakdown only minutes before getting to the store. why do we feel like we need to pretend everything is always fine, instead of being real & acknowledging that we are human?
I think we try to hide our wounds & our scars because we see them as signs of our weakness. we’re afraid that if anyone actually knew we had these hurts, these struggles – they wouldn’t accept us. all the while, each one of us has our own share of wounds.
there is something profound about being transparent with other Christ-followers about our realness. it can be ugly. it can be painful. it can feel awkward & embarrassing. but when we live real, transparent lives with each other, we are reminded that we’re not alone in this journey of life. relationships go deeper. friends come along side you and say, “hey – you don’t have to walk thru this valley alone.”
I believe Jesus often uses community to bring healing and maturity to each of our lives. we encourage one another. we pray for one another. we serve one another. we give to one another. we challenge one another. and yes, in love, we even confront one another when necessary.
but it is only when we are transparent with our wounds, scars, hurts, & struggles that real, life-giving community takes place. and it is a beautiful thing.
love God. love people. and be real.
