Week IV - Day 6 - The Mended Cup

My brain is sluggish this morning so I went searching for something to help me begin this new day with an attitude of worship.  Michael W. Smith...Healing Rain.  How perfect for a time of worship and reflection before reading about The Mended Cup.

Listening to these lyrics I wondered....Are we/Am I at times afraid to be healed...to become mended? "Healing rain is falling down, healing rain is falling down....I'm not afraid! I'm not afraid!"


I wondered what scripture says about healing:

Proverbs 4:20-22 ~ My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

Psalm 107:19-21 ~ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

Psalm 30:2 ~ O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

Isaiah 53:4-5 ~  Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are whole.

Proverbs 17:22 ~ A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.

Psalm 103:2-5 ~ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits--who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

"Waiting is endless...I wait because I am powerless to do anything else. I wait because what I most treasure is what is deepest within and protected by silence. Out of waiting comes patience. Out of accepting my powerlessness comes strength and love and the courage to dare." ~ Christin Lore Weber


When I think of endless waiting Christmas as a child comes to my mind...or my second pregnancy...watching for seeds to sprout in a dry spring...


I am powerless to do anything but wait...


I have not thought of being powerless...I wonder if it that is the real tension of waiting?


Joyce says, "Healing takes a lot of patience and much time.  Like a deep wound in the body that heals from the inside out, so with our healing.  We may not always readily see the steady healing occuring, but we need to believe that the mending is taking place." (Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Life, p 104)
Besides believing that we can be healed, our mending also requires:

• naming and working with our unwanted emotions,
• extending compassion toward ourselves and others,
• letting go of resistance
• trusting and yielding to God
• receiving support from others
• extending and receiving forgiveness
• taking good care of our body and our spirit  (Ibid)

Ummmm, notice how many of these bullets have been a part of the work of transformation from the past 3-4 weeks?

Healing is a process, rather than a one-time event.  Healing takes place over and over again....just like transformation.  Life is a process...a process of continually making choices...

Breathprayer:

Breathing in: Healing God...

Breathing out: ....I hope in you.

Reflection:

Turn the cup sideways in your hands.

Picture your old wounds and hurts in it.

Mentally take them out, one by one.

Give them into the Divine Healer's hands.

Now, hold the cup upright in your hands.

Think about the broken pieces that have been mended.

God will go to whatever lengths
are necessary....

Thank God for these mending times.

As for patience and hope.

Scripture: Ezekiel 34:11-16

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak. (Ez 34:16)

Journaling:

What aspect of healing is easiest for me? What aspect of healing is most difficult or challenging?

Write your own life version of "Amazing Grace."

Dialogue with one of the mended parts of your life (or with one of the wounded parts that is still in the process of being healed).

Yesterday I met with a 36 y.o. man who had been sexually molested by his scout leader 26 years ago, at the age of 10.  He told me how angry he had been and how it had affected all aspects of his life.  " 'Suddenly' ", he said, "seven years ago I realized I was the one continuing to be hurt by my anger.  I let it go and I've been praising God ever since."


This morning I am wondering if his healing was as "sudden" as he thought or if he had actually been in the process of healing for a long time and on that fateful day he realized new hope had been born.

Watching grass grow...

After my halo came off from breaking my neck, my right shoulder froze.  I could not lift my arm more than a few inches.  Another s-l-o-w recovery began.  I remember celebrating every 1/4 inch that I could lift my arm. Looing back, healing from that injury was probably a "visual" example for me of what has occurred and what will continue to occur in times of healing.  What just came to mind...sometimes healing might be as slow as watching grass grow...


What aspect of healing is easiest for me? What aspect of healing is most difficult or challenging?


Honestly...at this point in my life, I am not sure I am spiritually mature enough to identify any aspect of healing that is easy for me.  Waiting, not becoming frustrated or angry with myself would be my most difficult challenges within times of healing.

However! I just realized I am thinking of physical healing...  Spiritually...that is what I have been doing for the past four weeks and I have acknowledged this is a slow process AND I am actually enjoying the opening that has been occurring within my heart.  Soooo, maybe there are times that I enjoy the process....  Yet, thinking back to last night...the difficulty for me would/will be to stay on with the process....not to fall off "the wagon" because I begin to feel better and I allow the clutter/stuff to once again begin filling my cup.


Writing my version of Amazing Grace is an interesting thought...but I know I do not have the time or mental space to do this now.  I looked for one of my favorite Christian rock groups, Petra to see what they had done with this old hymn.  They didn't let me down..

God of healing...God of second chances...help me to continue mending the broken places of my life. Open my heart so that those who offer me hope and healing...will not go unnoticed.  Joyce suggests that I pray: Let me not forget all that remains for me as I ponder what has gone from my life. Be my vision and my strength. Anoint me with the oil of your love and take my hand as I move forward into ever greater healing. God, I can only say, "Amen" to those words!

Today, Joyce suggest I wear a Band-Aid as a sign of my trust in God to heal whatever is broken in my life and as a thank-you for what has already been healed.


What will I tell someone who asks, "What is wrong?"

"God is healing my heart! Praise be to God!" AMEN!

Many Blessings ~ Sandi