Healing Virtues of the Soul: Faith

What kind of image do the words faith and healing conjure up?

If you are over 50 “faith healing” has a spooky, negative image. You might either imagine something like the late Katherine Kulhman who began her 60’s show: “I Believe… in Miracles”. Or it could be the lesser known but even more colorful 70’s healer Earnest Angley’s and his very effeminate shout: “Be Heal---ed”? For most of you, however, the more recent charlatanism of Benny Hinn comes to mind. In one of his “healing” crusades captured on YouTube, he uses his suit jacket to cause people to fall backward as they believe themselves into being “slain in the spirit.”

Today we are going to talk about “faith” as a healing virtue. But first we’ve got some dirty religious laundry to clean up. To understand how God’s healing power is released through faith, might mean we need to first become a bit skeptical, like the disciple Thomas did. As the German theologian Karl Rahner once declared, 90% of what people believe isn’t true. If he’s right, one of the greatest challenges to healing might mean we need to divide what is true about faith from what is fiction.

‘FAITH’ HEALING OR HEALING FAITH?

Several years ago, I taught a class on Christian Ethics for Gardner-Webb University. The class was mostly geared toward Nursing Students, giving them a general introduction in Christian ethics and then focusing upon the growing and fascinating field of medical ethics. During that class we got into many “hot button” medical, religious and political issues, such as abortion, assisted suicide, genetics and cloning.

If I were teaching that class now, I’m sure “government sponsored health-Care” would have our attention as it does our nation. But what I remember as most thought provoking in that class was none of these “hot” topics, but a little video about a Christian Science family being taken to court because they refused medical care for their child, who as a result, died unnecessarily. In the courts, the Christian Science parents argued that their own religious faith should be protected, since their “faith” was also their “science.” But the courts argued that what they called “science” was neither true “science” nor properly called faith, but was an irresponsible act that could only be named “parental neglect.” If the Christian Science parents had only done what most parents did---if they had accepted the healing powers in both science and in faith and had taken their child to the hospital, as well as prayed for him, then the child would not have died.

Most of us instinctively rely on both---the healing power of human medicine and the healing power of faith. If we have physical problems we take them to the medical doctor, and we still pray. If we have emotional hurts we can’t manage, we might take them to a trained therapist or counselor, but we still pray. And if we have spiritual hurts, sins or doubts, we can take them to our pastor or a trusted friend but we still pray. Instead of deciding for one against the other, most of us are “smart” enough to use both faith and science as a resource. We know that both are gifts from God and should not be pitted against each other, but can be supportive and complementary.

But sometimes, and for different reasons, we might neglect one or the other. When I worked as a Chaplain at Baptist Hospital in the 1980’s, I saw this first hand even among the most elite and educated. There was challenge to getting certain medical doctors, so sure and convinced in their own healing arts, to realize their own limits and to remember they were still only “practicing” medicine. In other words, you could apply the best skills and the best science, but this did not always guarantee healing. It was right at these very limits of science that the healing power of faith could be plainly observed, though other times, was invisible.

I’ll never forget how a doctor once called me the chaplain on call, telling me that he was working with a certain patient, could find nothing else wrong with him, but healing did not come as was to be expected. He asked me to talk with this fellow and see if I could find out anything. Upon several visits with the patient, I found him not only to be going through a medical crisis, but also was going through a major personal and religious crisis. As he began to open up and share, and as we daily prayed together about his fears, worries, and struggles, his countenance lifted and he became increasingly hopeful and encouraged. A few days later the doctor met me in the hall, informing me that he appreciated my visits with the patient, because signs of healing were now becoming evident. He even marveled about it. I marveled too. It wasn’t that I had any special power, but that during our time together this man’s faith was empowered within himself. I was only a channel, a helper, kind of like a spiritual mid-wife of sorts, who helped his own inner powers of faith to be released.

THE HEALING POWER OF FAITH

In a beginning theology class a professor gave an interesting final exam. The students did all they could to get ready, but nothing could have prepared them for the professor’s final test question which went something like this: A man was having trouble in his life and wanted strength to face it. But he found it impossible to pray to a God whom he could not see, so he asked a friend what to do. The friend advised him that if he could not envision an all powerful though invisible God, he should picture in his mind the most powerful thing he could think of. The man gave it a lot of thought, and the most powerful thing he could imagine was a Greyhound bus. So he knelt down and prayed to this Greyhound bus. And behold, he found insight and help for his trouble by praying to a Greyhound bus. After reading this strange story, the students were asked whether or not they thought praying to a Greyhound Bus could work.

It might disturb some to realize that faith has a healing power all on its own---even without having a certain prescribed religious attachment. But this is exactly what Jesus was pointing to when he acknowledged to many who were healed in his presence: “Let it be according to YOUR faith….(Matt. 8:13), “Go…Your faith has made you well?” (Mark 10:52) and “Great is your faith! Let it be done to as you wish” (Mark 15:28). God has placed the power of faith within us, as a free gift and as a power and potential for our healing. Are you tapping into this power?

How many of you recall several years ago how a school teacher came up with those “Airborne” tablets, which were zinc tablets that were supposed to ward off nasty colds? My wife Teresa was taking them and having me take them last year, thinking they worked wonders. But last year I told her how a new study from a prestigious lab had announced there was nothing to it. Zinc has really no effect on keeping colds away. But why did we feel better and even seem to avoid colds, while taking them?

The truth is this, one of the biggest healing boosts we can give our bodies is the belief of our own mind and Spirit that something will work. A mother’s kiss doesn’t have any real medically explained effect, but it can make a scraped knee instantly feel better to a crying child. Harvard Medical School's recent course on "Spirituality and Healing in Medicine" has been widely cited as touting the power of belief. Even the most skeptical admit that the power of belief accounts for no less than 30% of medicine's impact. Others put it as high as 90%. In another similar report, it has been proven that: "Regular churchgoers aged 65 to 74 are 46 percent less likely to die in that decade of life than those who do not attend regularly." (Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, July 1999). If you want to stay alive…stay in church! Does it sound like I’m preaching yet?

The online journal of The Scientific American tells a powerful true story about “a man whom his doctors referred to as “Mr. Wright”. He was “dying from cancer of the lymph nodes. Orange-size tumors had invaded his neck, groin, chest and abdomen, and his doctors had exhausted all available treatments. Nevertheless, Mr. Wright was confident that a new anticancer drug called Krebiozen would cure him Mr. Wright was bedridden and fighting for each breath when he received his first injection. But three days later he was cheerfully ambling around the unit, joking with the nurses. Mr. Wright’s tumors had shrunk by half, and after 10 more days of treatment he was discharged from the hospital. And yet the other patients in the hospital who had received Krebiozen showed no improvement.

Over the next two months, however, Mr. Wright became troubled by press reports questioning the efficacy of Krebiozen and suffered a relapse. His doctors decided to lie to him: an improved, doubly effective version of the drug was due to arrive the next day, they told him. Mr. Wright was ecstatic. The doctors then gave him an injection that contained not one molecule of the drug—and he improved even more than he had the last time. Soon he walked out of the hospital symptom-free. He remained healthy until two months later, when, after reading reports that exposed Krebiozen as worthless, he died within days. (This was first told in a 1957 report by psychologist Bruno Klopfer of the University of California, Los Angeles, entitled “Psychological Variables in Human Cancer.”

The proper scientific term for this is the placebo effect. This refers to the uplift a mind can have when a surge of power of faith uplifts your body and releases healing chemicals in your body. Less well-known, however, but just as prevalent is "the nocebo effect"--the power of negative thinking. Believing the worst case scenario, downed by depression, the mind/body connection plummets the body into an ever-grimmer state of ill health. The drag of your mind impedes your healing. This is called the nocebo response. You not only make yourself healthier with faith, but we must also realize we can make ourselves sick without it?

This nocebo response is illustrated by the case of a woman who had a non-serious heart condition as well as congestive heart failure that was completely under control with medication. During a routine visit to the hospital, she overheard a doctor telling someone she had T. S. She assumed that T.S. meant 'terminal situation' when it actually referred to tricuspid stenosis—a treatable heart value malfunction. However, the woman thought she was dying. While still in the hospital, she became more ill and died later that day despite the fact that she had nothing seriously wrong with her." (As cited in Howard Brody, "Mind Over Medicine," Psychology Today, 32 [July/August 2000], 60-67.)

It’s all in your head. Haven’t you seen this? Of course, everything isn’t in our head, but a lot of it is. “As you think in your heart, so are you and you become?” (Proverbs 23:7) Jesus reminded those stuck in the dietary legalism of their day what came out of their hearts meant much more than what they put into their mouths (See Matthew 15: 16-17). In one of his greatest statements, he told his disciples what “they believed in their hearts” would “come to pass” and that with “faith” they could even move mountains (Mark 11: 23). And you thought it was amazing when they invented remote controls. The most amazing discovery of personal human power is the power of mind over matter: most of what happens in life comes from what we want to believe and are willing to believe with our hearts. Everything starts with faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). While there is a limit to what we can believe to be true, there is little limit to what faith can make come true.

TRANSFORMING OUR OWN WORLD ‘BY FAITH’

But what does biblical faith mean and how can it help to heal hurting hearts---hearts that are still bogged down in shame, guilt, fear, and weakness? How can faith pick us up and put us on another road altogether, or as the writer of Hebrews suggested, how can faith make us “strangers” to the world that is around us, so we become faith-pilgrims, who “by faith” are headed toward a whole new world—toward the new the “city” of hope and promise, whose “architect and builder” is God (Hebrew 11:1-13).

There is a well known story about a pet delivery-truck traveling down the road. Every time the truck came to a stop light, the driver would get out of the truck and grab a two-by-four, then run to the back and start beating on the truck’s back doors. This went on for several miles, and nobody could figure out what he was doing. Finally a guy following behind him pulled alongside and had to ask, “What in the world are you doing?”

“This is only a two-ton truck,” the driver answered, “and I’m carrying four tons of canaries. I’ve got to keep two tons up in the air all the time. (Taken from John Baker’s book, “Life’s Healing Choices”, Howard Books, 2007, p. 71).

How many get stuck trying to get through life this way? We humans can do all kind of things---even some very crazy things---trying to keep all our hurts, hang-ups, and habits up in the air, so they don’t come crashing down around us. We can keep up a good front. We can put on a good face. But we know in our hearts that we are stuck. We might work hard, but are seldom satisfied with what we’ve done. We can drink too much or live for one party to the other, but feel emptier after each one, rather than feeling full and content. We might keep up a good front or put on a good face, but know we are stuck in our failures, problems and defeats. We can constantly “bang” on all the doors of opportunity around us, trying to make something happen or keep something worse from happening, but the one thing we fail to do, and need to do most, is simply open up the door of our hearts to the truth and to the source of real hope---letting go and having faith in God.

In our study of the healing virtues, we’ve spoken of the need to speak honestly about our weaknesses and to even to learn to “boast” about them in hope, because God’s power and our power also, is made perfect in our weaknesses rather than in our strengths. But moving beyond just having hope, to seeing God’s power can transform our weaknesses into strengths, demands we take a step of faith. We must decide within ourselves, with God’s help of course, to take the next step out of our own ‘comfort zone’ and daringly start the walk toward the whole new world God builds. As the writer of Hebrews describes, like Abraham we must be willing “by faith” to let go of what we know. For us, this “letting go” is much the same as it was for Abraham: letting go of our fears, letting go of our pride, letting go of our guilt and letting go of our worry and doubts, and then to stepping out to “set out, going but not knowing” exactly where we’ll end up.

We must take have this soul-healing “virtue” of faith, fully trusting in God’s grace power we have come to know by grace. God and his grace will show us the way, but in order to know we must decide to take a risk, step out, then go—even while we still don’t know. To take this step of faith, we must be willing to become strangers to the world we’ve have known and become pilgrims to the new world God wants to build for us. We won’t ever see this hope and healing take place, until we take, what can be called not just a “step”, but a “leap of faith.”

Hebrews gives us the greatest definition of biblical faith when it describes faith as both “the ‘assurance’ of things hoped for and the ‘conviction’ of things not seen. (Heb. 11:1). These these two words translated by the New Revised version, as opposed to the KJV’s “substance” and “evidence” give an even clearer picture how to take this step toward hope and healing. Let’s stop to briefly think on these words for a moment.

ASSURANCE: First of all, healing faith gives us the ‘assurance’ that God can help us in our weaknesses and hurts. Because we ‘rest assured’ of God’s help, we have a new “substance” in our lives. We can give our hearts and lives to God because, he has the power when we don’t. His power can even make strength out of our weaknesses. This gives us new possibilities and the make faith more possible---so possible that even the impossible can happen.

CONVICTION: When we rest in the assurance that God can help us, especially when we know we can’t help ourselves and when we find that God’s grace can transform our weaknesses, then we have spiritual “proof” or “evidence” which brings a whole new “conviction” to our hearts. Through God’s grace released into our hurting hearts, God not only proves to us his power to heal, but he gives us a “perfected” power we can’t give ourselves. Faith is to be so convinced of his power for healing, that we are ready to give whole hearts to God.

By faith we can take new steps, even leaps into the dark and the unknown, because we are assured and convinced of God’s help. With both assurance and conviction we walk forward by faith, and we can keep walking, so that by keeping The faith, we keep faith in life. With each step in faith we take, our hope turns into more healing and our healing fills us with more hope. But in order to have healing and to keep hope, we have to also need to do what we must do to keep faith—each and every day.

There is a story told about a man named Sven who was an immigrant from Sweden. Sven had to find work in his new country and landed a job painting stripes down the center of the highways. This was before there were machines to do this job. Sven went to work his first day and ended up painting two miles of an almost perfectly straight line down the center of the highway. Sven's “boss was never so pleased, for no one had ever before painted two miles of center stripe in one day. The next day out, Sven painted one mile of center stripe, which was still quite good, and his boss was well satisfied. But the next day Sven only painted half a mile of stripe, and the fourth day he painted just a quarter mile. Finally the boss decided he would have a talk with Sven because he was no longer satisfied with his work. The boss said to Sven, "Sven, you painted two miles on your first day and now you're down to a quarter mile. What's happened?" Sven answered, "Yell, you see each day my bucket get furder and furder away.” (From: EXPERIENCE THE POWER: MESSAGES ON 12 STEPS OF FAITH, JOHN TERRY, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1992).

We can’t stop going in circles or get out of the self-destructive cycles of despair and discouragement until we learn to walk both by faith and with faith. We must take our “bucket” of faith with us and draw from it daily because even though God won’t let go of us, we can let go of God and we can lose heart and hope, missing the healing he has for us. Our faith must be a constant and it must be our true priority, if we want what only God can give.

There is another story of an American tourist who paid a visit to the renowned Polish Rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. The tourist was astonished to see that the rabbi's home was but a simple, single room. Beside many books, the only furnishings were a table and bench. "Rabbi," asked the American, "where is all your furniture?" To which Chaim replied, "And where is yours?" "Mine?" asked the tourist with a puzzled tone. "I'm just a visitor here. I'm only passing through." "So am I," answered the rabbi, "So am I."

This is more like our struggle with faith today. It isn’t just that we “leave faith behind”, but that have so many other things that crowd it out of our lives---so that it isn’t there when we need it most. But while we fill our lives with many things, faith is the only furniture your soul needs for its journey. You can’t go one step forward, in hope or healing, without keeping your “faith bucket” near. And for heaven’s sake, don’t let your faith get crowded out by the many trivial pursuits that one day won’t matter at all. Leaving faith out of your life will only get you nowhere, just faster. One day when everything that is nailed down breaks loose, which may be sooner than any of us now thinks, what you believe in your heart will be all you have left. Since faith will ultimately be all you have left, why not let faith be the “tour guide” for your soul now?

What will it take to convince you that the constant and greatest need is to have faith and to keep faith? Faith is not just where everything ends, it is where everything---all hope and all healing—really begins. Where is your faith, right now? Do you have it with and in you, or are you just spinning around and around---beating the doors, trying to keep it all from crashing down. Do you to believe in yourself? Do you want healing for your life? Then answer this: Do you really have room in your heart what your soul hunger and hurts for most—faith in God? But don’t just listen to me, listen him, when he once told the hearts so overburdened with carrying everything, that they failed to carry the one thing they needed most: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ^“Matthew 11:28-30.

Are you ready to let go and take hold of the hope, the healing, the power and the faith you already have in you, but you’ll never be able to get out of yourself alone? Until you put your faith in him and lay all of your burdens upon the only one strong enough to carry them, you not find faith, but only despair? Help and healing for our souls, requires faith. And the faith you need most, is a gift God has already given you. Jesus came ignite faith’s flaming fire within you! Can you feel the heat? Do feel the warmth? Will you have faith?

© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.