I have a friend who sustained a concussion a few months ago and as I watch him recover, I’m reminded of my own concussion recovery journey from a few years ago. My concussion happened from a bad fall when I was snowboarding and the healing process took far longer than I anticipated, so I learned a lot about this over the duration of this journey. Of course we all prayed and asked God to instantly heal me or at least make the healing happen super fast, but alas, my healing took longer than I anctipated. And the healings that happen immediately or on the fast track speed, we revel and celebrate such miracles! But what about a healing journey, that might not be the speedy miracle?
When I think about a healing journey and the healing process, I’m reminded of Jesus healing the man who was born blind in John 9. This dude was begging at the temple gate in Jerusalem when Jesus happened upon him. The “Spark Note” version of this healing is that Jesus told him to go to a pool and wash off some mud Jesus had put on his eyes. He did this and was healed! For the first time in his entire existence he could SEE!!!!
Not only did Jesus heal blind eyes, crippled legs, leperous skin, deaf ears and lots more physical maladies, Jesus also healed broken hearts, fragmented personalities, poisoned emotions, dysfunctional thoughts and hopeless mindsets. So in our healing journey with Jesus, let’s be open to Jesus being our Healer in not just physical ways, but throughout all of our existence! Our journey with Jesus can be a healing journey, regardless of the speed of that healing.
Returning to the man born blind, just because this seemed to be a speedy healing, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a journey for this man and maybe we could learn about this journey for our own healing! Here are a few things to consider for a healing journey:
Jesus: I certainly can recognize the value of modern medicine, education and nutritional wisdom, but let’s keep in mind that Jesus is the ultimate healer. Let’s acknowledge that Jesus is our healer and He can heal us in lots of different ways / methods.
Journey: Jesus told the blind man to wash at the Pool of Siloam and this was quite a bit of distance for the blind man to walk. We don’t know the path he took to walk more than half a mile, but I’d suggest that his journey was part of the healing process. In my own healing journey, I’ve found that sometimes there are huge steps forward and sometimes there are some unexpected setbacks, twists along the journey and maybe some hairpin curves. No matter what, I just figure that I’m moving forward and I’m getting better 
Time: In our instant society, our appetite for slow, methodical, steady and incremental can evaporate in seconds. It’s unfortunate that we’ve grown accustomed to getting what we want now! Maybe we would be wise to think about time as an essential ingredient for the healing journey, since we don’t know how long it took the blind man to make his journey to wash off the mud on his eyes.
The blind man was healed by following Jesus’ directions, regardless of the time and difficulties he experienced, And let’s consider that our healing journey might go through some setbacks and take a little longer than we anticipate. But no matter what, let’s keep walking with Jesus into His magnificent healing in our lives!
