By His Striipes

The other day an anonymous visitor posted a comment on my blog in answer to a tongue in cheek sort of thing I'd written about a spat of bad luck involving any number of aches and pains--the topper being an injury to my back which left me hobbling about like some sort of troll. As my hyper religious son most often sees these sort of things as directly attributable to Satan himself, I joked around about the notion--because, as it seems to me, ones failing health can manage very well on its own without Lucifer's help. That's just the way it is.

But in any case, this person offered a diatribe (mind you, a complete stranger he or she) about how I just needed to pull myself up by my bootstraps and receive the healing of Christ, understand that we are healed by His stripes, and so on and so forth.

That's fine. But first off, I would ask anyone commenting here to go the extra mile and avoid hiding behind the anonymous option. I mean, if one truly believes in what one says, why feel that ones identity must be kept secret. Seems to me to undercut the whole point the writer had apparently hoped to convey.

In addition, I do not see physical ailments as things foreign to the pattern of natural life. This happens, especially as one gets older, and also if one suffers at baseline from a disease such as multiple sclerosis. I do not agree that such things are indicative in any way of being somehow distanced from God or being faithless. Rather, I accept my lot with a sort of thanksgiving that thrives in the spirit rather than in the flesh, and I understand that sometimes adversity is the best, sometimes even the only, effective nutrient to the spirit.

By His stripes we are healed, yes indeed--emotionally, spiritually, even physically--whatever is in His will. At the same time, part of our business in life is in finishing out the sufferings of the Lord, for unless the seed falls to the ground and dies, there is no new life. Understand the Word, therefore; understand the transcendent philosophy of the apostle Paul; and then please, please leave the childish things behind; for we are grown in due time, by pangs and by pains, by sorrows and deaths, into adulthood.