Lately I've been thinking about healing, sickness, injuries, health, and healthcare. A lot of people think that miracle healing was a first century Christian phenomenon. Every living being has been healed of something many times. For example, a simple cut will heal all by itself with no apparent help. A broken bone will mend straight if it is "set" or realigned, or mend crooked if left unset. The body is designed for healing. So why then is it so difficult to believe in "big healings"?
A guy named G.K. Chesterton who lived in the late 1800's wrote: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried." How true and sad for us and those around us. So, looking back at the years before sobriety, I remember being sick at least once a year. I have not been sick since 2006, as best I can remember. I also had liver disease from alcoholism and an esophagus that was virtually closed up with scar tissue. My innards are all as they should be, my blood pressure is in the just right zone, and my cholesterol numbers are all good. I believe God healed my liver and esophagus, and just claiming daily victory that He has for me has done the rest. I thank God for my health everyday.
The "Christian ideal" is difficult, because of my sinful nature. But having tried, it and continuing to try it, God has proven himself to be all powerful and totally trustworthy. Living a Christian life is not easy, especially having to unlearn old ways of thinking and doing things that have been in place for decades. But day by day in every way I'm getting better. Life is worth living because my saviour, Jesus, lives. I really want my grandchildren to remember me as a man after God's own heart. A man who is quick to laugh, slow to anger, and always loving. When they are older, I want them to know the story of how I became the man I am, and see the victor and not the victim. I want them to see a man who loves God, his family, and life; who is not afraid to face each day but sees it as an adventure in every circumstance. I want them to see a man who does not want or need to control them or others, but a man who prays for God's will to be done in their lives as well as his own.
I hope I live long enough to become "a man after God's own heart" I thank God that I am closer today than I was yesterday.
It occurs to me that this blog hasn't been as much about riding motorcycles as I thought it would be. Having said that I think I'll ride tomorrow and see what lies over the next hill.
Keep the shiny side up.
