I Want Instant, Superficial Healing Now!

I have the book Have a New You by Friday by Dr. Kevin Lehman, but I haven’t read it. It’s on my very long TO DO list, although by the title, it sounds like it should be at the top of that list.

Imagine, a new me by Friday…

…cue the wavy, dreamy scene change as I am transformed into A New Me by Friday…

I’d always find my keys and cell phone but lose the extra 20 pounds I’ve been carrying around the last few years…

I’d be thin and in shape and curvy but only where I want to be curvy…

My hair would finally tame itself and listen when I tell it to relax and straighten out…

The line between my brows would be gone, my upper lip wouldn’t disappear when I smile, and my lashes would be long and lush…

I’d be smiling and happy, filled with Joy every day, in every moment no matter what was happening – or how crazy those boys drove me to be some days…

I’d be smart and funny and beautifully sexy and kind hearted and graceful…

I’d be calm and peace would ooze from my pores (I have only a vague idea what that even means but it sounds good)…

My boys wouldn’t be creeped out when I say things like peace would ooze from my pores…

I’d be organized; there’d be no more lost schoolwork in the mornings, or dirty dishes in the sink, or unfolded laundry on the couch…

I’d never burn another batch of cookies or let the boiling pasta overflow on the stovetop…

That unknown I-don’t-want-to-know-what in the back of the refrigerator wouldn’t grow hair and the bathrooms would never run out of toilet paper…

My front grass would never overgrow (today it’s front weeds, but by Friday it’d be front grass I’m sure), and my houseplants would never die a slow death at my hand…

I’d be the cool Mom, the devoted daughter, the trusted friend, the knowledgable teacher, the faithful disciple…

I’d be AMAZING!!!

Have a new me by Friday?!?

I am not sure how exactly that would happen. I’m sure if I read the book I’d figure it out, but in the meantime, I’ll just sit here and fantasize about what my life would be like if someone would just snap his fingers and make a new me.

You know who I mean by someone: Jesus!

He could do it – if He wanted to!

Or maybe finger snapping is too big of a deal for Him, maybe that was considered impolite 200 years ago, maybe His Mother never taught Him how, maybe His true Manliness shows thousands of years later in one imperfection – the inability to snap perfect fingers!

If that’s the case, I’ll let Him spit on His fingers and stick them in my ear, although that would be a bit odd. My kids get a swat when they try it. We call it a Wet Willy, and frankly, it’s  pretty gross.

2000 years ago, Jesus used a Wet Willy to perform a miracle.

I still think it’s more than a bit odd, but if Jesus wants to spit on His hands and stick His fingers in my ears just so I can be cured of all I don’t hear and can’t say, so I can have a whole new world open up to me, so I can practically be reborn again, well then I guess He can go ahead and do it.

I’ll allow Him to.

Except if He does that, He better cure me instantly, none of this new me by Friday stuff.

It’s kind of funny, the way we look at Sunday’s Gospel reading from the Book of Mark, Chapter 7:31-37 compared to the way we view our own prayer requests, our own transformations.

In the Bible, Jesus does strange things. Perhaps a scholar could explain better why Jesus didn’t just snap His fingers and pronounce the man cured, but He didn’t. Jesus chose this closeness, this intimate, physical sharing of Himself to answer the man’s specific prayer requests.

Contrast that with how we act today.

Today, we often offer vague prayers in the form of wishes instead of prayer and have superficial concepts of what will make us better, and then we put conditions on all of it.

Look at the list of wishes I offered above. If I could only have a new me by Friday Lord, I’d lose 20 pounds, have perfect features, hair, and skin, I’d be attractive inside and out, the kind of person people would want to be near! My house would be the model house; my lawn would be the envy of the neighborhood.

I’d be AMAZING!!!

Much of our lives is spent wishing for shallow things. I vaguely know I want to look better but am not willing to put the time in to make it happen. I know I want the house to be spotless but make excuses for the mess that follows five boys and a busy Mom.

We want Jesus to fix everything instantly.

Even our broken relationships.

Especially our broken relationships.

And we want it done instantaneously.

We spend a lot of time thinking if God could just fix the superficial, the relationships would work themselves out. We look at the distractor object – the other woman, the smooth talking man, and superficially compare ourselves to them.

If I was just 20 pounds thinner and 10 years younger…

If I just had a better job and made more money…

We don’t like when God lets us know that is not the answer to our prayers, it’s not even the answer to our wishes! We don’t like it when God tells us that we are not ready to jump to a new start, that we have to work on ourselves for a while – the superficial maybe, but the deeper, more everlasting too.

And when we do agree to work on that deeper part of ourselves, it’s with conditions attached.

So-and-so got divorced and met a great new guy, so I know God has someone planned for me too…

If I turn to God, He’ll bring something better…

But, as the years drag on day in and day out, we question, not our resolve, see seldom see the problem as within us, but we question our God and His decision to allow things to continue. We question His timing. We question His power. We question His Love and concern for us. We question our worthiness and we begin to wish for the superficial again.

This shows us, not that God’s timing is off, but that our ability too Love and Trust still has room to grow.

God allows us to grow until we reach the point where we say, Okay Lord, I totally Trust in You, no conditions attached. Draw me in to your closeness. Show me an intimate, physical sharing of Yourself to my one, specific prayer request – That I grow in You. Show me everything else is icing.

When we finally surrender to God and His timing and His will, no matter how badly those around us act or treat us, we often feel that it is as though God spit on His fingers and stuck them in our heart, our mind, our soul. The healing is that clear.

The lessons seem to take a small eternity on earth, but when we stop fighting them and actively seek to learn more about the Lord, the healing is instant and lasting.

We may slide back. We are human and open to temptation and doubt, but when we truly learn that lesson of total and utter reliance on God, that reliance that can ONLY be learned by our reaching out over and over and over again, we begin to understand exactly how just and perfect and loving the Lord really is.

The Lord may be leading you through some difficult times right now, but you are there for a reason. Don’t wish. Pray and be specific in your requests. It may seem that you are being spit on by all aspects of life, but don’t mistake that for being spit on by the Savior. Reach for Hm, Trust in Him, Love Him. Grow in Him, and Rely on Him.

And in an instant you will realize He has been healing you all along!

Because, while you have been busy wishing for that instant, sacrificial healing, Jesus has been patiently waiting for you to accept Him and the instant, complete healing only He offers.

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