I received a phone call recently inviting me to discuss “healing” with a group of health professionals at a local hospital. My first question was, “Healing what? An illness? Or a life? Are you referring to physical healing? Mental healing? Or healing spiritually and in relationships?”
“Just healing,” was the reply. I thought this was a very astute answer, because healing in one of those arenas usually affects the others very significantly.
So, what is healing? A popular dictionary defines it as “to make whole that which is separated or out of harmony.” Usually this means something more than simply returning to the former condition. The two parts of severed skin that has been separated and healed are usually more strongly adherent than before the separation. In the larger sense, healing involves becoming more fully alive, enlarging the circle of our being to include more that is loved and understood.
In this sense healing is a bringing together or a state of oneness. It is a never-ending process that provides empowerment. Empowerment comes from creating an atmosphere that allows for changing limiting beliefs or expanding beyond them. It is drawing out a person’s own wisdom and providing the means to actualize it.
It is as though we have two minds: our operating mind where we create thoughts by which to function in the world and our core, wise mind which is the source of our core values and wisdom.
Many times, the greatest source of our distress (which affects our health) comes from these two minds being separated, that is operating by thoughts that are not in harmony with our core values. When so, the key to healing lies in discovering how to bring the two minds together, that is, to transform the operating mind to be one with the core, wise mind. This involves drawing out of a person what they already know within: wisdom drawn from many inspired sources. When this happens, distress transforms into eustress, the kind of stress that helps us rise to the occasion, turning us to our higher selves.
Jesus, the Master Healer
Jesus, the master healer, had a magnificent way of doing just what was described above: telling stories that bypassed head thoughts to draw out inner wisdom. Then, mostly through his remarkable love, he gave people in need of healing the means to have the strength to transform old ways and habits that were out of harmony with their deeper wisdom and hopes. And all of this showed up in his capacity to heal them physically as well.
This connection between spiritual / mental healing and physical healing in New Testament times has not always been fully appreciated. In Luke 5: 18-24, a palsied man is lowered through the roof on a bed, seeking to be healed of his physical condition. Jesus first said unto him, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee,” and then proceeded to heal him physically. That has remarkable significance, suggesting that the spiritual healing was also critical to the physical healing. Both to be forgiven and to forgive is to be moved along the journey of healing.
Integrity to your deep values is the key to feeling a sense of control over your life. Forgiveness is refusing to blame any longer what someone else has done that motivated you to act in ways you would never choose. It provides the means to be and act the way you want regardless of what someone else has done, thus taking back control of your life. Such an inner sense of personal control has been strongly linked with better physical and mental health outcomes in a number of studies. Forgiveness heals. To attain healing in the varied dimensions of our own lives involves learning to forgive, and to receive forgiveness. Jesus showed us how to do this.
Scriptural Definitions of Health
It is important to realize how central the concepts of “health” and “healing” were to Jesus’ purposes. We tend to connote health in physical terms today. This was not so anciently, and in fact, words for purely physical health are hard to find in biblical Hebrew and Greek. Even in our own time, the World Health Organization has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.” It has been elsewhere broadly defined as “that quality of existence when man is at peace within himself and in concord with his environment.” There may be meaning in the fact that the closest word for “health” in biblical Hebrew is shalom (peace, completeness, well being, soundness). It becomes quickly evident that these are precisely the ends toward which the Master –“the Prince of Peace (Shalom)” was striving.
He came to bring “salvation” to mankind. It is of no small significance that the Greek word “soteria”, translated as “salvation” in the New Testament, was not a theological term originally at all, but rather meant “health, safety and security in general.” Thus the “Lord of Salvation” is precisely the Lord of Good Health and Well-being in its fullest sense as defined above. While we usually think of health in physiological terms (e.g. the ability of the body to withstand environmental assaults), such resilience extends to all dimensions of human experience. The difference between removing disease alone and real healing may be illustrated in the episode where Jesus cleansed ten “lepers” (Luke 17:11-19), but only the Samaritan who returned with profound gratitude to God was pronounced healed (vs.15) and whole (vs.19). Similarly, the Greek word sozo is translated in the New Testament as either “heal” or “save.”So when Jesus came as the Savior, he came as the great Healer, that is, the one who brings wholeness, and oneness, and peace. When he healed the bleeding woman (Mark 5:25-34), he told her, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be wholeÖ”
Love, the great healer
Nearly half of people coming to their physician with physical problems have significant anxiety. Some of this is situational and some is biochemical. Nevertheless, love has a biology to it: a shift in neurotransmitters in the brain that can heal. Many studies show a striking association being better physical health outcomes and loving relationships. Also, relieving anxiety and fear results in less illness. John wrote, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fearÖHe that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1John 4:18) And he that creates fear is not either. Being judgmental (even with the best intentions) disconnects us –the opposite of healing. That which brings oneness heals, and that which divides us is in need of healing. Love brings hope, which also itself heals.
So what then is the essence of healing? It has much to do with:
- Loving (both giving and receiving) just as we are
- Empowerment –Giving and receiving a sense of personal control
- Forgiveness –Reconnecting and taking back a sense of personal control
- Transforming and deepening life— in harmony with one’s deepest values
- Hope –Creating positive expectation for something of value coming out of each of life’s situations
Each of these has been clearly proven in good studies to be associated with better health. If one would be a healer, as the Master was, or if one is in need of healing, these five listed principles are essential.
