Celebration of Healing

As I near the end of my undergraduate career and turn the corner into 2018, it has been important to engage in a bit of reflection. At the beginning of a new year or season, I often find it helpful and centering to choose a word or mantra to keep close for that period of time— for reflection, for guidance, for hope. One of the most valued gifts these four years of college have given to me is an honesty in my identity, and with that, a more precise ability to recognize and name my truest passions and desires. As I look back on 2017, and perhaps my entire four years of college, I see clearly my word or mantra which represents the passions of my soul: healing. More specifically: ἐσωζόμην in Greek.

This is not simply because I feel healed, though that has been a significant and blessed portion of this season of life. I do know I have been healed, and I do sense that I am actively being healed, and I hope that I am actively healing [myself, the earth, the people around me].

This word ἐσωζόμην is often used in scripture to refer to salvation: restoration: healing. It is commonly translated to save or make well. I choose to meditate on this verb in the imperfect tense, because this implies that it has not been halted by a definite ending. I believe this is something that is still happening— all around us, all in us, all the time. This has happened to us, is happening among us, will continue happening through us. Sozo (in which we find the word ἐσωζόμην) is a central verb in the vocabulary of the coming Kingdom of God. We are invited to live into this Kingdom by our participation in God’s work of sozo (healing, restoration, salvation). We have been a part of this work whether we recognize it or not. We know this verb physically and spiritually. It is something we have experienced; we have witnessed this and we are invited to take part in it.

I think a first step towards accepting this invitation to participate is to acknowledge and celebrate the pieces of healing we are able to recognize. Reflection is an important piece of celebrating our healing, and celebrating our healing empowers us to trust [God, the journey, our neighbors] more deeply. So let’s reflect, often and on purpose. Let’s remember the restoration we have known bodily, emotionally, spiritually.

The healing we experience in our bodies and hearts is a personal image of the healing God is bringing about in the world. I sense this personal image of restoration when I look back at the healing I’ve felt and seen. I hope and suspect that healing will always remain an important word and concept to me, and it is my goal to invite and catalyze it with intentionality whenever and wherever possible. I used to think that pain was the most natural and most unifying human experience; but now, I hope and believe that it is actually healing, the long step just after (or perhaps amidst) the pain. It is natural to feel pain. It is human to heal. As I remember some of the most painful times of my short 21 years, I think of the ache and burdens which led me to self-harm when I was just 13 years old. That has always been something I’ve been embarrassed and ashamed of, but now I’m able to see that those self-inflicted wounds were a method of searching for healing. I tried to turn my emotional pains into physical, tangible, healable ones. I know I didn’t deserve those physical pains, but I did deserve the healing of them—physically and emotionally. As I look back now, I’m able to be gracious with myself, and see myself as humbly and wonderfully human. These reflections have led me to find and celebrate better and more wholesome methods of healing. For one example, I find healing in writing; writing this piece required me to reopen old wounds, but with each word, I felt those wounds healing more deeply than before, and I’m learning to love the scars.

Our participation in healing is perhaps one of our most beautiful purposes. Our participation can be quiet, loud, vocational, personal, environmental, or a million other things. But no matter how it looks, the impact of our participation extends further than we can see. Celebrating and inviting healing is a gift to yourself, the people around you, the world, and God. Our flourishing is all bound up in the healing and flourishing of each other.

I pray that this year we might join all the more enthusiastically this movement and mission of healing. Start by seeking your own healing, in healthy and beautiful and probably even simple ways. Invite fresh air deep into your lungs; delight in your own breath’s contribution to the carbon cycle; appreciate the goodness of where you are. Name the desires of your soul, and bring light to the things which corrupt or prevent those desires. It will extend and flourish from there, as salvation is brought to our bodies, minds, soil, air, spirits, and communities. Trust your God, your journey, your neighbors, and invite them into the work of healing too.