Spiritual Paradox

"Your faith has healed you." I sat in a college auditorium listening to Joni Eareckson Tada yesterday morning. On July 30,1967, she dove into Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down.

"Your faith has made you whole." Yesterday afternoon I listen on the radio to Nick Vujicic. Nick was born in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. Nick was born without arms or legs. My daughter came over for dinner and after we ate we looked up some videos about him. In those videos Nick talked about how he as a child had struggled mentally and emotionally as well as physically.

"Your faith has saved you." Last night I was reading the last chapter of Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Bonhoeffer was a theologian, martyr  a spiritual writer, a musician, a pastor, and an author of poetry and fiction. He staunchly resisted the Nazi dictatorship and opposed Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and executed by hanging in April 1945 while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp, just 23 days before the German surrender.

As I considered the lives of these three people I recognized that they had some things in common. The first thing I see is in their lives is a living faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen."(Hebrews 11:1) I also saw that the result of faith could be summed up in the Greek word sesoken. This word means, "to be made whole, cured, well, healed or saved."

I guess some might argue with me that because Joni gave her speech from a wheel chair and had to ask her husband to come on stage twice, once to help her sit up straighter so she could breath and the other time to help her lean over so that she could read, that her faith had not healed her. After all these years of faith Joni is still a quadriplegic. Joni does not have the use of her legs but the auditorium was filled with college students who did have the use of their legs and twice they gave Joni a standing ovation. Her vibrant faith had filled them with hope as they saw her offering herself as an example of how God uses in a powerful way what the world would consider weak.

Some might look at Nick without arms and legs and say that that is proof that faith cannot make you whole but it only took watching a couple of videos about Nick for me to see just the opposite. Nick has a contagious faith and joy. He has spoken in 44 countries and least 2,000 times. His message is one of faith and hope and promise. Nick has lived a life that by any one's standers is
whole. He also has a beautiful wife and son.

Although Bonhoeffer at one point had confessed to his friend Bethge that he struggled with depression he was not conquered by it. Most of his adult life was spent living out his Christian beliefs in a hostile environment. He was sure of what he hoped for and confident about what he didn't see and as he lived his life this way he was made whole and well. Hugh Falconer who was with Deitrich in prison said, "[Bonhoeffer] was very happy during the whole time I knew him, and did a great deal to keep some of the weaker brethren from depression."

Lord Jesus, thank You for Joni, Nick and Dietrich so that I can see what it looks like to live being sure of what is hoped for and confident about what is unseen. In their lives I see the process of sanctification watching each of them grow in divine grace. I believe that You call all who believe in You to be set apart for a special use or purpose. I see how You have chosen to redeem their suffering by making them into holy vessels. Please Lord, help me walk in faith, I too want to be made whole.