Sick as a dog...
Who came up with that term anyway?
I mean, I've seen plenty of dogs sick. And for the most part they still wag their tails and recover fairly rapidly... So long as it isn't something terminal.
Definitely sad...
But cats?
Gnarly.
I'm currently sick.
Caught a bug from my sons and it's running it's course through my head and joints...
Not necessarily gnarly, but it got me thinking...
My husband read a devotion to me a few mornings ago about Jesus and the Leper.
Leprosy is gnarly.
Gruesome.
Debilitating.
Isolating.
A person with leprosy in Biblical times was marked.
Commanded to cry out 'Unclean!' as they made their way through the streets to warn others of their approach.
Hopeless.
As a girl who scored a 12 out of 12 concerning touch as my Love Language, the thought of being ostracized and untouchable makes me shudder.
As my husband read the devotion he was noticeably moved. He could relate to the feelings expressed by the author.
The shame.
The horror.
The disconnectedness.
The ridicule.
Painful doesn't really do it justice...
Leprosy starts out painful but results in numbness.
Deadness.
Irretrievable loss.
What begins as a wound ends as a gaping vacancy.
There is an innate inability to heal.
We always pray after we do our devotions and that morning wasn't different.
As he held my hand I was grateful for his touch in a new way.
But as he prayed he said something that pierced me....
"Lord, I can't begin to comprehend what it would be like to be a leper. But I do know what it's like to feel shame. To feel marked. To feel disconnected. To struggle daily. To live with internal leprosy in desperate need of a Healer..."
Internal Leprosy...
What started out as a wound now numb and rotting,
or maybe even just gone.
Oh it rang through the halls of my heart and found so many places to land!
I too walked so many years with the internal dragging of emotional and mental limbs.
The rot of sin and it's consequences eating away at the beautiful gifts the Lord so carefully placed there.
The injury of abuse, divorce, addiction, unforgiveness, envy, selfishness...
And in my mind always the echo of "Unclean... unclean.... unclean..."
On the outside, however, everything looked pretty great...
The to-do list was checked off.
The smile was intact.
The house was reasonably clean.
The obligatory duty to God and man was in order...
But inside?
Rotting.
My husband and I know that all too well...
The exhaustion of constantly covering up...
And finally the admittance that we desperately needed the Healer.
The Leper in Matthew 8 went in search of Jesus,
1 "When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
He approached Jesus...
in a large crowd.
Do you think that he was crying out 'Unclean!' as he moved in that crowd?
Or do you think that the had carefully bundled himself so that nothing showed, making sure not to let anyone get too close, planning each movement with meticulous care to assure he wouldn't be identified as...
Grotesque
Unacceptable
A lost cause
Beyond help?
I tend to think the latter...
It's my opinion for sure, but it fits the image that Scripture paints for me.
Jesus would have been the focus of the crowd.
The Leper knelt before Him.
I'm thinking the Leper was right in the middle of it all...
And how many of us are right in the middle of it all?
The middle of ministry
The middle of chronic illness
The middle of grief
The middle of parenting
The middle of mental illness
The middle of loss...
No one is immune.
We're all in the middle of something.
But I guess the question is:
Are we in the middle with Jesus?
The Leper believed that the Jesus could heal him if He was willing...
And this was Jesus' response:
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.
"I am willing."
Jesus is compassionate to depths that are unfathomable to us.
He was willing and the Leper was cleansed immediately!
I understand the heaviness of trying to make sure that my internal leprosy is covered so that I'm not identified in negative ways.
I understand the numbness that results from years of rotting wounds that eat away at mental, emotional, and spiritual nerve endings.
Jesus does too.
He knew that the wounds on the heart, mind, and soul of the Leper were in even more dire need of healing than his eroding body.
And He was willing to cleanse them all.
He has done it for me...
And He has done it for my husband.
As we continue to come across areas that fester we kneel before Him and say:
“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
And He is.
Push through the crowds in your careful wrappings if you must.
Plan your steps meticulously and keep others at a distance if that's where you're at.
But make your way to the feet of Jesus.
Come in all your wounded, rotten, numbness.
Ask Him for wholeness, for cleansing, for healing.
Jesus is still about the business of healing leprosy of all kinds.
Even yours...
Who came up with that term anyway?
I mean, I've seen plenty of dogs sick. And for the most part they still wag their tails and recover fairly rapidly... So long as it isn't something terminal.
Definitely sad...
But cats?
Cats on the other end are GNARLY when they're ill, at least in my experience.
Especially with respiratory stuff... The wheezing, the coughing, the runny eyes and bubbling mucous from their teensy nostrils....
Gnarly.
I'm currently sick.
Caught a bug from my sons and it's running it's course through my head and joints...
Not necessarily gnarly, but it got me thinking...
My husband read a devotion to me a few mornings ago about Jesus and the Leper.
Leprosy is gnarly.
Gruesome.
Debilitating.
Isolating.
A person with leprosy in Biblical times was marked.
Commanded to cry out 'Unclean!' as they made their way through the streets to warn others of their approach.
Hopeless.
As a girl who scored a 12 out of 12 concerning touch as my Love Language, the thought of being ostracized and untouchable makes me shudder.
As my husband read the devotion he was noticeably moved. He could relate to the feelings expressed by the author.
The shame.
The horror.
The disconnectedness.
The ridicule.
Painful doesn't really do it justice...
Leprosy starts out painful but results in numbness.
Deadness.
Irretrievable loss.
What begins as a wound ends as a gaping vacancy.
There is an innate inability to heal.
We always pray after we do our devotions and that morning wasn't different.
As he held my hand I was grateful for his touch in a new way.
But as he prayed he said something that pierced me....
"Lord, I can't begin to comprehend what it would be like to be a leper. But I do know what it's like to feel shame. To feel marked. To feel disconnected. To struggle daily. To live with internal leprosy in desperate need of a Healer..."
Internal Leprosy...
What started out as a wound now numb and rotting,
or maybe even just gone.
Oh it rang through the halls of my heart and found so many places to land!
I too walked so many years with the internal dragging of emotional and mental limbs.
The rot of sin and it's consequences eating away at the beautiful gifts the Lord so carefully placed there.
The injury of abuse, divorce, addiction, unforgiveness, envy, selfishness...
And in my mind always the echo of "Unclean... unclean.... unclean..."
On the outside, however, everything looked pretty great...
The to-do list was checked off.
The smile was intact.
The house was reasonably clean.
The obligatory duty to God and man was in order...
But inside?
Rotting.
My husband and I know that all too well...
The exhaustion of constantly covering up...
And finally the admittance that we desperately needed the Healer.
The Leper in Matthew 8 went in search of Jesus,
1 "When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
He approached Jesus...
in a large crowd.
Do you think that he was crying out 'Unclean!' as he moved in that crowd?
Or do you think that the had carefully bundled himself so that nothing showed, making sure not to let anyone get too close, planning each movement with meticulous care to assure he wouldn't be identified as...
Grotesque
Unacceptable
A lost cause
Beyond help?
I tend to think the latter...
It's my opinion for sure, but it fits the image that Scripture paints for me.
Jesus would have been the focus of the crowd.
The Leper knelt before Him.
I'm thinking the Leper was right in the middle of it all...
And how many of us are right in the middle of it all?
The middle of ministry
The middle of chronic illness
The middle of grief
The middle of parenting
The middle of mental illness
The middle of loss...
No one is immune.
We're all in the middle of something.
But I guess the question is:
Are we in the middle with Jesus?
The Leper believed that the Jesus could heal him if He was willing...
And this was Jesus' response:
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.
"I am willing."
Jesus is compassionate to depths that are unfathomable to us.
He was willing and the Leper was cleansed immediately!
I understand the heaviness of trying to make sure that my internal leprosy is covered so that I'm not identified in negative ways.
I understand the numbness that results from years of rotting wounds that eat away at mental, emotional, and spiritual nerve endings.
Jesus does too.
He knew that the wounds on the heart, mind, and soul of the Leper were in even more dire need of healing than his eroding body.
And He was willing to cleanse them all.
He has done it for me...
And He has done it for my husband.
As we continue to come across areas that fester we kneel before Him and say:
“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
And He is.
Push through the crowds in your careful wrappings if you must.
Plan your steps meticulously and keep others at a distance if that's where you're at.
But make your way to the feet of Jesus.
Come in all your wounded, rotten, numbness.
Ask Him for wholeness, for cleansing, for healing.
Jesus is still about the business of healing leprosy of all kinds.
Even yours...
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