A couple of weeks ago I was scrolling on social media and stumbled on a song called “Healing” by Cat Burns. The chorus to this song goes as follows:
But now I'm healing, feeling, growing, and unlearning.
My old self has been laid to rest.
Now I'm ready to become my best.
This song touched me because of how relatable it is to my life. Particularly, it resonates with my ongoing journey toward increased vulnerability and comfort in sharing the ways I am feeling, growing, unlearning, and healing in my own life. This song made me reflect on many things, including what healing means.
When I was younger, I always thought of healing only as getting better from an injury or sickness. As I've grown older, I've come to understand that other forms of restoration also occur. We constantly undergo mental, spiritual, and emotional healing, both as individuals and collectively. Healing in these ways is also a lifelong journey that sometimes requires us to do some hard work and reflection, especially when it involves difficult or painful life situations or hurtful experiences.
Having this understanding of healing has been helpful for me. On an individual level, this has been valuable in improving my relationship with others or God. I have often felt deep pain from certain experiences I have had with people and have wrestled with how God is present amid this. This has also helped me when it comes to realizing the deep pain we all might experience collectively when a tragic event happens in our community or in the world such as the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, and mass shootings.
We constantly see Jesus in the Gospels healing individuals. He restores sight to the blind and the ability to walk to those who are paralyzed, casts out demons, and heals the sick. Jesus meets people wherever they are in their restoration journey, especially outcasts and marginalized people. God does this for us, as well. No matter where we are on our journey of continuing to be made whole, God is with us. God walks alongside us as we work to understand what this means in our own lives and remains with us even if full restoration does not occur as we desire. We often share this restoration with others as we struggle, celebrate, and question where we are in the healing journey. Wherever we are, God still calls us to live, celebrate, and share our own stories of healing with others.
How have God and others shown up for you amid healing? Are there ways that you are still trying to heal in your life?
Healing with you,
Pastor Nicole