Mar 11 - "Simple Healing"

John 4:43-54
"Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.' The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my little boy dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son will live.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way."
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One of the things my boss jokes with me about every once in a while is my tendency to make things more complex than they need to be. "Keep it simple." is the only guidance he gives on certain occasions when asking me to go tackle a particular issue or new initiative.

I think my boss would appreciate Jesus' approach to healing this sick little boy. How awesomely and simply powerful is Jesus?!? He doesn't have some long, flowery speech...He does not ask the father of this child to go through a forty-two step process...He does not preach to the man about the things he should have done to help his son avoid the sickness in the first place. Jesus simply says "Go; your son will live". That is awesome!

When we think about the healing which may need to happen in our own lives, do we make it too hard? Whether we believe it or not, we too, have the ability to heal. We can do it in an overly-complex way, or we can make the choice to do it very simply. The most common healing many of us need one of relationship.

Is there someone to whom we need to apologize and gain forgiveness? Sometimes, simple is best; no complex requirement...just a simple statement, looking the person squarely in the eye and saying in a deep, heartfelt and sincere way, "I'm sorry."

Is there someone we need to forgive? Don't we make it too hard sometimes? We think, "I want this person to recognize how they have wronged me, feel really bad about it and show me how much they regret hurting me; and until then, I am going to be angry." Holding onto that anger, holding the power to forgive inside ourselves and not letting it out can cause us even more pain than the wrong itself. Let it go. Stand with the person who you need to forgive, facing them and say with a simple but strong conviction, "I forgive you."

In that power of simple forgiveness, we too have the ability to heal; the ones we forgive as well as ourselves.

So today, go out into your life and in a simple way, heal...and be healed.