Staying ill or being healed? (Job 7:6-7 and Mark 1:29-39)

One of the most amazing things about being human is how adaptable we are.  Round the world yachtsmen, for example, get used to continual wet, tiredness and the battering of high seas - all in a space that most of us would not use for a cupboard. We adapt to living in foreign countries or strange towns, and part of the pressure of retirement is that we have to stop being the person who got up and went out to work and become somebody who fills-out life with hobbies and family. 

Each time we adapt, however, we get just that bit more keen to keep things the same for the future.  And if the thing we have to get used to is rather bad, the strange thing is that the amount of effort we put in to getting used to it tends to make us more frightened of changing it!

So we can find ourselves being rather perverse and holding on to very negative things.  Illness can be like this: we become accustomed to being ill and almost “comfortable” with it.  If we get cured suddenly, the amount of change that we have to undergo can be quite threatening.  If you’ve been in hospital for a very long time, for example, of course you’re glad to be out.  But then you have to do things like shopping, cleaning and earning a living again - you have to find other topics of conversation that your illness or how you are feeling.  You move from saying “When I get better I’ll…” to “I suppose I’ve got to tackle this now!”

Jesus offers healing.  His loving and healing power can break through our illnesses, whether they are of the body or the spirit (and some of the illnesses of the spirit - like jealousy, resentment, hidden anger, stress and fear - actually have been shown to cause physical illness).  But he can only heal us if we want him to.  He will not force us to be well.

If we are unhappy we will want that to change, but we may have to be prepared to change ourselves.  Jesus has the power to lead us out of pain and fear, but we have to face the question of whether we want to be healed or to stay ill.  Holding onto anything negative in our lives will block Jesus’ healing power; getting rid of these things and trusting in Jesus is the path to real recovery.