Tuesday: In a Mortal World the Body Breaks Down
WEEK 30
TUESDAY
IN A MORTAL WORLD THE BODY BREAKS DOWN
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
We ended on the note yesterday that not all diseases are cured in this life. This is a mortal world, and the body was never intended to be immortal in a mortal world. The body sometimes breaks down. And this occurs to those who are saints and who are filled with faith. When one such saint was crippled with pain from arthritis, some absolutists were wringing their hands in agony and wondering where the lack of faith rested—in them or in the sufferer. I commented, “The victory lies in his spirit. He was radiant when he was free from pain, and he is still radiant wracked with pain. The victory of spirit is the real miracle, far greater than any physical miracle of healing.” ‘The saint said,” I would rather have you preach my funeral sermon; for while they would be bemoaning my lack of healing, you would be singing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’”
When an absolutist position is taken, a great deal of wreckage results. One such absolutist healer himself died of cancer. Another had to leave his healing services in order to go to the Mayo Clinic for an operation for cancer. Another dropped dead of heart failure as he was laying hands on the sick in a healing service.
The flexibility of outlook in the New Testament does not leave behind this wreckage. It is sane and wholesome and sound. These people were amazingly healthy because they had found the Way, and the Way turned out to be the way to live—physically, mentally, spiritually, collectively.
The Whitby, Ontario, Canada, mental hospital probably turns out a larger percentage of cures than any other institution in North America. When asked about the secrets of healthy living, the head of the hospital replied, ‘Work and love.” If you do not have a creative activity, you’re unhealthy automatically; and if you don’t love something and someone beyond yourself, again you’re unhealthy automatically.
The society in the Acts knew those two things—they were creatively working, and they were creatively loving. Hence they were healthy. Disease germs and functional disturbances simply could not find any lodging in such healthy living.
O Lord God, I thank you that we can be so sound within that disease germs and functional disturbances can find no seedbed within ns. Make us that way. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I shall creatively work and creatively love.