Week 42—Wednesday Psalm 37:8-9
Week 42—WEDNESDAY
ALL MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE A RETREAT OUT OF LIFE
If one wants to be well, for a purpose, it helps tremendously in being well. When Jesus asked the man at the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6), it was important. Some people want to be well but not whole—whole as a person. They want to be well of the disease, but not whole in the total person—body, mind, and spirit. Unless you want total health you have no right to ask to be well. For being well may mean going back to the old selfish ways of life.
A woman was operated on for a heart condition. When she was told the operation was successful she was furious. It meant that now she would not be the center of attention as an invalid. She would have to take responsibility and get attention by what she produced instead of by what she suffered, so she was frightened and angry. A man who was going blind was operated on and his eyesight restored. He said, “I had been living back in the shadows, protected from life and its responsibilities. Now I felt my defenses were all down. I was right out there in the center of things. I was afraid, for I felt naked. I did not want to assume the responsibility of facing life.”
All mental illnesses are a retreat out of life—a retreat into the unreality of concepts and phrases and illusions. It is the word become word. All healing is the positive assuming of responsibility. Sten Nilsson, a missionary to India, was given up to die when he was a boy. The doctor said to his mother, “You need not send for me to make out the death certificate, I’ll write it now.” He did. But Sten, when he heard it, said, “I do not intend to die. I intend to be a missionary.” The next day he got up, was well, and has been well ever since, the picture of health. The champion weight lifter of Canada met with an accident and couldn’t be an athlete any longer; he was frustrated, argued with God and himself. He surrendered to God and is now a well man!
O Jesus Lord and Healer, help me to face up to everything with you. For in you there is health and wholeness. Help me to take nothing lying down, all standing up. For in you is everything I need—and more. I thank you, thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am as well as I want to be, if my “want to be” includes cooperation with God.