When God Is Our Only Physician

I know a man who is from South America. He and most of the people he knew growing up were truly, objectively poor.

I was amazed once when he told me about all of the healing blessings in which he had participated throughout his life. A few were jaw-dropping in their nature and result, but many were for conditions that are commonplace to us - things for which we wouldn't think of asking for a blessing. Initially, I was a bit bemused and almost dismissive of how "commonly" they relied on blessings, and I asked him why it was so commonplace and not more special.

His response humbled me, but it also opened my eyes to my own assumptions and what I take for granted. He said:

"You can take some aspirin or go to a doctor and get a prescription. Your health insurance makes it cost next to nothing. We didn't have that option. God was our only physician, so we went to him."

I will never stop using the resources I have available to me, but I also will not ridicule or even question people who go / went to God in their lack of things I take for granted. I hope I can take advantage of ALL of my resources, and I hope that never stops including God - even if that varies in degree from others on either side of the spectrum from me. 

I also think there is a powerful message in this story about those things which medication (and even faith) cannot heal. Sometimes, even in abundance, God might be our only physician.

We Need Holes in Our Hearts

We teach of the need to have hearts that are open to being filled. 

Hearts without holes can't be filled.

"The whole need not a physician, but the sick."

I thank God regularly that I have not had many trials that I know others have had, but I am grateful that my heart has had holes that needed to be filled and that God (and others, as His hands) has tended to those holes, in various ways.

My primary purpose in much of my interaction with others is an attempt simply to help fill holes in other hearts.  I might not be able to be a curer in most cases, but I can try to be a healer. 

Our Bodies Are Temples: Dealing with Mental and Emotional Illnesses and Issues

I believe deeply in the concept of our bodies being temples and, thus, that we need to take care of them in every way possible.  I recognize that I have not followed this counsel well at certain times in my life, since I have been overweight for extended periods of time since graduating from college many years ago, but I do believe in it.

As evidenced by the number of posts I've written here about various mental and emotional issues, I believe just as deeply that treating our bodies as temples includes taking care of chemical imbalances, which means, in many cases, for people with depression and other similar issues, using proper medication - even as medication might not be needed for others or needed long-term.

Some people still attribute mental and emotional issues to evil spirits.  I can agree that there might be evil spirits at work in some cases and not have a problem with suggestions for prayer and Priesthood blessings - but only as long as the type of comprehensive, balanced approach being advocated by phrases like "taking care of your body" includes professional counseling, medication, diet, etc. in an attempt to pinpoint exactly what the issues are for each individual.

If any approach discourages trying counseling, medication, diet, etc. and focuses exclusively on "spiritual causes", I reject it without hesitation.

For that reason, I was ecstatic to hear Elder Holland speak in General Conference so directly and clearly about depression and the need to do more than just try harder or just exercise more faith.  God bless him for addressing such a common ailment in the way that he did. 

Participating in the Mundane Enough to Experience the Miraculous

Two years ago, the Sunday School manual focused on the teachings of Pres. Lorenzo Snow.  In one of the lessons, an experience was shared about Pres. Snow raising a child from the dead.  In a subsequent conversation about that story,  someone asked what our expectations of our leaders and ourselves ought to be with regard to the miraculous.

I have participated in hundreds of blessings over the course of my years in the Church. Most have been nice but forgettable; a few have been somewhat revelatory; a handful have been . . . powerfully connective to the divine.

My expectation of leaders and myself boils down to a willingness to put ourselves in enough situations where the revelatory and powerfully connective might happen, even though my experiences teach me that most of the time it will be nice but forgettable - that we will be there when God needs to reach down in a miraculous fashion and, figuratively, show us his hand.

My takeaway from the lesson is that Pres. Snow did that – participated enough in the mundane that he was there for the miraculous.

Struggles with a Joy-Focused Church: The Plan of Salvation vs. The Plan of Happiness

I wondered a long time ago if people who have some sort of disorder (like depression of any kind, bi-polar disorder, social anxiety, etc.) are more prone to difficulty in a church that teaches, "Men are that they might have joy," and is such a social, "life-style" religion. I have come to believe that they do, and, to paraphrase Jesus, those who do NOT face those sort of things probably are the "whole" who need not a physician - and who struggle to be a physician in practical terms. 

As an additional note, this is another reason I don't want people who struggle in some way because they are different to leave the Church. Many of them are the very people who could serve the sick who need a physician - and educate the whole about minimizing their contributions to worsening the sickness of others.

In that light, I have noticed a movement over the last few years to replace "The Plan of Salvation" with "The Plan of Happiness".  I understand and appreciate the reasoning behind that new focus, but I also understand that such a change constitutes a two-edged sword.  For those who are inclined to be able to feel happiness more readily than others - or those for whom the concept of a salvation doesn't resonate all that deeply, due to the relative goodness of their lives - the idea of God granting them happiness if they pursue it can be a powerful motivation and an empowering goal.  For those who are prone to depression, lack of self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, tendencies toward feeling overwhelmed, destructive perfectionism, etc., however, happiness can seem elusive (and, in too many cases, even guilt-inducing and burdensome) - while the concept of being saved from grief, pain, sorrow, struggle, etc. can be powerful and empowering. 

I like each phrasing, in a proper setting and with proper application, so I prefer the use of both descriptions rather than exclusive reliance on either one.  I think there is even greater power and empowerment in combining the two and emphasizing both when talking publicly, and I believe doing so can help those who naturally would gravitate to one over the other appreciate and gain strength occasionally from the one that does not resonate most naturally for them. 

My Sunday School Lesson Recap: Why Would a God Have to Suffer for Us?

I started the Sunday School lesson last week with three questions on the chalkboard:

"Why do pain and suffering exist in this life?"

"What part do we play in pain and suffering - in receiving and causing pain and suffering?"

"Why would a God have to suffer for us?"

Before talking about those questions, we read Alma 7: 11-12, Isaiah 53: 4-6 and Matthew 8:7. We listed all of the things for which the first two passages say Jesus suffered: pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, death, infirmities, griefs, sorrows, transgressions, iniquities and, interestingly, "the chastisement of (punishment associated with) our peace". We read that Jesus suffered in order to know how to "succor (nurture, support, feed, etc.) his people" "according to the flesh" (not at just a theoretical or intellectual level). We talked about things we can understand "according to the mind" without really understanding "according to the flesh".

The first answers from the students to each question tended to be doctrinal ("to teach us lessons" / "to help us learn and improve" / etc.), but we drilled down to the practical answer ("because pain and suffering are unavoidable aspects of mortal life and central to the Plan of Salvation"). In other words, because God approved and decreed we would suffer. He "authored" it, since it was a central (perhaps the central) aspect of his plan.

I then asked everyone to think about the second question and consider that we almost always talk about how the Atonement pays for what we suffer (what is done to us), but we seldom talk about the suffering we cause (what we do to others) and how forgiving us is just as much a part of the Atonement as suffering for others is - since both are aspects of healing.

We talked about why, within our legal system, the person who commits the crime must do the time - and why a judge won't sentence me for what someone else does. We talked about if God could be any different - if there were different rules for God than for us.

We discussed the 2nd Article of Faith and that God couldn't hold us accountable for all of the bad things that happened as a result of the Fall (that we won't be punished for Adam's transgression) - that God had to be willing to take responsibility for what he set in motion and be accountable for it - to walk the walk that he required us to walk - to suffer everything his plan demanded we suffer. He had to be an example we can choose to follow, not a sadistic dictator who causes others to suffer while watching from the sidelines.

We finished by revisiting the meaning of the word "repent" - how it means, at the most basic level, to change in a way that improves or makes better. We re-read Matthew 8: 7 - where Jesus says his central mission is to "heal". I mentioned that the Old Testament says in more than one place that God "repented" of what he had done - and how we change that wording because of how we associate repentance only with sin. I told them that changing the word "repent" to mean nothing more than changing in a way that improves or makes better ("to heal; repair") frees God to "repent" the natural results of the Plan of Salvation (the unavoidable pain and suffering of mortality) by healing us and fixing the otherwise broken link between us and Him.

Thus, God becomes, in a very powerful way, both the author AND the finisher of our faith. I explained that we talk almost exclusively about Jesus' role as the finisher of our faith (the one who pays the price to tie it all together in the end) but that we generally ignore completely the implications of God being the author of our faith (the one who broke the link in the first place, asked us to suffer out of trust, caused the debt to be incurred and promised things we would have to believe without seeing).

The Atonement of pure Mormonism is SO incredibly expansive, deep and profound that we generally craft a Reader's Digest version and forget that the abridged version isn't the author's complete works. I hope I opened the library door for my students today and gave them the encouragement and/or inspiration to walk inside, "feast on the word" and discover something delicious that will nourish their souls - even if it is different in some way that what others have found to feed their souls. I hope I uncovered (and they recognize and taste) what I consider to be the main course of our theology and not get so focused on the condiments, the appetizers, the beverages and the desserts that they forget to enjoy the main course - or never catch sight of it in the first place.

The Gift of Healing vs. Priesthood Blessings

The first gift of the Spirit I want to examine this month is the gift of healing. I want to look specifically at the difference between that gift and formal Priesthood blessings - largely because I believe they are conflated too often by too many church members. I don't want to complicate it any more than is necessary, but I also want to make sure I articulate something clearly as a result of how I address this topic.

The gift of healing is listed as a spiritual gift, but I believe it can be manifested in two very different ways:

1) as a "gift of the Spirit" that someone has received that appears to be an actual "ability", if you will;

2) as a situational gift given in particular cases when a healing occurs independent of the gift of the Spirit described above.

The first gift is one that I have seen in a few people in my life.  These people are "natural healers" - people who can exercise a gift and heal as a direct result of that personal gift.  Sometimes, this is manifested through advice and counsel that is more "insightful" than "medical" - cases where the gift might appear to be more of a case of "discernment" than of traditional healing; other times, this is manifested through a traditional healing that often includes some sort of "laying on of hands" - usually not in a formal manner, like what we see in formal Priesthood blessings, but rather through some sort of physical contact.  Everyone with whom I have spoken who has this type of gift can't remember a moment when they received it; rather, "To (them was) given the gift of healing" - and they have had that gift for as long as they can remember being aware of it.  

Importantly, these people can be male or female, and they can be inside or outside any particular religion or denomination.  They even can be agnostic or atheist, although that is rarer in my own experience.  This is because, generally, these people see it as a "gift" and not as an "ability" - meaning they see it as something given not obtained.  They believe in a giver in most cases. 

The second manifestation is one that I personally have experienced as I participate in Priesthood Blessings, but, in my case, I don't see it as a "gift of the Spirit" that is constant and "mine", if you will.

I have been the voice in hundreds of blessings in my life.  The vast majority have been blessings of comfort and counsel, rather than obvious healing - but, occasionally, I have been present when healing occurred.  It was obvious and undeniable, and it was a wonderful thing.  (I also have been involved when counsel was given that included information that simply was not known to the person who was the voice in the blessing, including me on more than one occasion.  This post focuses on instances of healing, but I need to acknowledge those times when physical healing does not occur but emotional healing does - through the revelation of information within the context of counsel and/or comfort.  This type of healing is real and powerful - and I believe it is undervalued and even dismissed too often in our modern culture with our modern skepticism.) 

I have come to see Priesthood blessings as an opportunity for God to heal through non-healers - through people who do not have the "gift of healing" as a constant, natural gift.  There are lots of other things that can happen within Priesthood blessings.  They can be a conduit for healing, but they also (and more often, in my own experience) can be a conduit for counsel, comfort, insight, love, communal support and many other things.  They are a format to "bless" - and that, by nature, is much broader than healing.  Healing blessings are a subset of Priesthood blessings, and I think it's important to remember that relationship - if for no other reason than that a failure to remember it leads to the disappearance of all of the other purposes for Priesthood blessings and the expectation of healing whenever a Priesthood blessing is administered.  That is not an inconsequential or trivial thing. 

I don't go into any formal Priesthood blessing expecting to be able to speak words of healing.  I would like to be able to have those words come to me, but it is not a requirement in any way in my own mind.  I go into Priesthood blessings praying for insight into what the person needs to hear and experience; I clear my mind right before I begin speaking the words of the actual blessing portion of the ordinance; I say whatever comes into my mind.  As I am voicing the blessing, I don't think; at that moment, I simply speak.

In the vast majority of cases in my life, what I have spoken was indistinguishable from "mortal" counsel, encouragement, comfort, etc.  There was no obvious connection to the divine in the words themselves, so I can't say with intellectual certainty that they were the words of God and not my own words.  They might have been divinely inspired (and, again, in some instances, the source of the words I have spoken has been unmistakably divine), but they might not have been; they might have been nothing more than my own thoughts, desires, insights, advice, etc.  I'm totally fine with that, since I believe God expects us to do a lot of things without his direct involvement, but I'm fine with it also because I believe the Holy Ghost can inspire us in ways that are not obvious - in times when what we think are our own thoughts and words actually are God speaking to and through us in non-obvious, non-dramatic ways.  I don't always know the original source of my words, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.  I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in all the other, non-healing aspects of Priesthood blessings, so I'm not disappointed when healing doesn't occur. 

To make this point from a historical perspective, Oliver Cowdery was told that God had spoken to him in his mind and in his heart - but Oliver didn't understand that it was God speaking at the time.  He assumed those thoughts and feelings were his own at the time.  It only was after God pointed out to him a particular experience and told him that what he thought and felt had come from God that Oliver understood that experience more fully - in hindsight.

I believe God has done that with me, and, while that adds a degree of complexity to my life (since I'm not certain always whether something came from God or if it just came from me), I appreciate the principle that inspiration really can be indistinguishable sometimes from our own thoughts and feelings - that, in a very real way, we as individuals can be the source of God's inspiration simply as a function of the people we are and are becoming - that, in a very real way, "ye are gods" and "I am a child of God" - and that the implications of that belief are so much greater and expansive than we often realize.   

Finally, I want to reiterate that the gift of healing, as a gift of the Spirit, is not limited to men who perform Priesthood blessings.  If I were to count the people I have known who possessed the gift of healing as described at the beginning of this post, my own experience says that there are at least as many women who possess it as there are men - even within the LDS Church.  However, I believe our conflation of the two types of healing available in the Church has created a situation where the first manifestation has been "delegitimized" in the minds of too many members - that they can't see or accept a woman performing such a healing without seeing it as a counterfeit threat to Priesthood blessings.  I think that is a shame - as would be anything else that denies or diminishes recognition of and respect for any gift of the spirit. 

Women can be conduits of healing in the LDS Church, if they have this particular gift of the Spirit - and they also can be conduits of comfort, counsel, insight, love, communal support and many other important things.  They might not be able to exercise the Priesthood in formal ways and by explicit invocation currently, but I believe strongly in things like Mother's Blessings and other similar constructs that don't invoke specific Priesthood authority.  I believe deeply in Priesthood blessings, especially given my own experiences participating in them, but I also am troubled by what I believe to be our improper focus on them to the exclusion of other forms of "blessings" and the consequence of that too narrow focus.

Some Thoughts on Spiritual Pain, Harm and Healing

1) "The incorrect traditions of their fathers" doesn't apply only to those outside the Church. It applies to the Church, as an institution, and it applies to each individual in the Church, as well. (See the allegory of the vineyard in Jacob 5 for a good description of that concept.) "Incorrect traditions" are interwoven into every organization, from the largest to a single person living alone. That doesn't excuse the effects of those traditions, but it's critical to realize - since it helps blunt the natural tendency toward exclusive harshness when one is hurt by someone or something, particularly "the Church".

2) Believing in infallibility (or holding totally unrealistic expectations) hurts much more than accepting fallibility. Those with lower expectations are harmed less than those who have their unrealistic expectations shattered.

3) NOTHING is strictly an academic issue. EVERYTHING has an emotional element to someone.

4) Those who are hurt severely by someone or something have every right to be mad and want to strike back - and, in some cases, they have every right to strike back. Likewise, time and distance are necessary for healing to occur. However, when time and distance don't heal, other proactive steps must be taken. Striking back and lashing out never is the final solution, and they rarely are the best solution.

5) I personally believe that about 75%-90% of the hurt we feel was not intended by the ones who hurt us - even in many cases where the pain was deep and lasting. In many of those cases, someone was acting in a way that they felt was "right" or "necessary" - or it simply had been drilled into them over their own lifetime. In many other cases, the person actually is totally unaware of the pain or harm they caused.  I can NEVER know exactly and comprehensively why someone acts as they do, so I simply can't judge or condemn THEM - even when I am required to judge and even condemn their actions.

6) Many bad things are the choice of the lesser of two evils - or, at the very least, not a choice of one obvious good and one obvious bad.

7) Finally, time and distance can bring healing, but, conversely, time and distance also can distort and push toward extremes - to the end results of both condemnation and denial. Therefore, healing is most likely when initiated as early as possible after the original harm. Festering emotional and spiritual wounds are no different than festering physical wounds in that regard. If left untreated, they will become cancerous.

Total objectivity ultimately is impossible, but attempted objectivity is important.

I have come to believe that God "heals" more often than He "cures".

My second son received an interesting baby blessing. He was born 19 days early, but there were no apparent issues with his health. He left the hospital in a normal time frame, and nobody was concerned at all for him. 

In his blessing, he was told that none of the physical trials that he would experience in life would have the power to derail him from the mission Heavenly Father had appointed to him. It surprised me when I said it, and it surprised my wife enough that she wrote it in her journal.

Fast forward 20 years:

This son has severe allergies; none of our other five do. This son's appendix burst (after leaking for about a week) when he was 11 - almost killing him. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, the only person in my extended family of whom I'm aware with that particular condition. Our kids and their friends have a mock bet about which organ will fail next.

My point? This kid has incredibly strong faith. It really is amazing to see. Especially because of his baby blessing (and subsequent blessings as he has been sick), he knows God knows of him personally, and his faith in other things is very strong. However, neither his appendix nor his pancreas was "cured".

Due to this and other experiences, I tend to look at the word "heal" and see all its possible meanings. Here is a typical list:

 

1. To restore to health or soundness; cure.
2. To set right; repair: "healed the rift between us".
3. To restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness.
v. (to be healed) To become whole and sound; return to health.

The definition most people think of when they read "healed" is "cured". The one I choose to accept in this context is "be made whole". My son isn't "whole" physically, but he is about as "whole" in the greater sense as it is possible to be at his age - and I attribute that largely to the strength and nature of his faith - aided by the recollection of God's love for him that was proven through the spoken blessings he has received in his life.

I have come to believe that God reaches down and takes an active hand in "curing" us more often than many believe, but I also have come to believe that He "heals" more often than He "cures".

The Mutual Sickos We Really Are

If those who don’t understand our suffering never see it, they never will understand it. 

 

I know it is painful to expose suffering, but please don’t rob others of the only way for them to understand - unless doing so really is beyond your current ability. If that is the case, increase your ability through becoming more Christ-like - then expose them to it again so they can have another chance to understand.

“Life is pain, Highness,” carries much more import and power than comes across in the movie. Too many of us cover our warts, because we assume nobody else is as hideous as we are - because the make-up they apply to hide theirs works better than ours. I wonder how many others around us in the pews have warts they are hiding, as well - because they are sure we don’t have any and are scared of being seen as hideous by us. What a vicious cycle.

Again, I know it is painful (incredibly so, sometimes) to remove the make-up and go out in public amid the perfectly coifed in our jammies and hair rollers - but sometimes letting others see our warts is the only way to help others reveal theirs. We can’t help each other heal until we collectively recognize and admit our illness - until we see each other as the mutual sickos we really are.

Those Whose Mortal Struggles Overwhelm Them

I know someone who has some intense struggles.

He lived with friends for a while after he could no longer live at home, and, during that time, he had a couple of incredibly strong spiritual experiences - after first deciding to listen to the missionaries because both sister missionaries were "absolute babes". (What can I say; he was 18.)       He is highly intelligent, and he "got it" very quickly.  He and I had some long talks, and he really did have some awesome experiences and insights.   He was baptized while living with his friends, then left for college a few months later.

He had some negative experiences in his new ward that don't need to be detailed here.  As a result of those experiences and the subsequent lack of the type of support system he had when he joined the Church, he began to return to the life he had lived prior to coming to that.  His dysfunctional adolescence caused some very deep habits and inclinations, and, left on his own, they resurfaced.  I have prayed for him and hoped for him, but I have seen his actions take him away from activity in the Church.

He returned home once for the summer, and his father mocked his inactivity by saying something like, "I guess that Mormon thing isn't working out for you."  His response gave me hope in the midst of my concern. He said to his father, "I'm not living the way I should be living, but the Mormon Church is still the truest thing I've ever heard. I just have to get myself together before I can live it."

 

I hang onto faith that "when he is old, he will not depart from it". I KNOW his experiences and insights were real; he knows they were real. I have to trust that God's mercy truly will save him from the results of Adam's transgression in his life - and I see the issues that are keeping him from full activity directly as a result of what he inherited from his parents and what he had to "become" to cope without killing himself - and the experiences he had in a non-supportive environment when he first was on his own.

I believe the Atonement is MUCH more powerful than we often realize. Surely, God understands those whose struggles overwhelm them, and we someday will "stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers (them); confused at the grace that so fully he proffers (them)."

Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord

I had an interesting insight during a prayer a few months ago. In all my years as a member of the Church - in all the countless meetings I have attended and all the countless times I have read the scriptures - in all my pondering over the years, I have not had the same thought in quite the same way. I'm sure it's not earth shatteringly profound, but it was powerful and thought-provoking for me. I also am sure it is a direct result of the contemplation I have been doing concerning the Lord's yoke, His grace and our gratitude for His matchless mercy.

What struck me is that all of us, when we become members of the Church, covenant to take certain responsibilities. We promise to comfort those who stand in need of comfort and mourn with those that mourn. We agree to the sacramental covenants, then Priesthood or YW's covenants, then temple covenants - as well as various callings within the Church's organizational structure. Although these things are meant to bring us growth and understanding and joy, in a very real sense they are "burdens" we agree to carry.

Psalms 55:22 says, in part: "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee."

Ether 12:27 says: "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Matthew 11:28-30 says, in part: "Take my yoke upon you."

Here is what I learned: The concepts in these three verses constitute a complete solution; without the first and second, the third is impossible.

In simple terms, the Lord wants us to cast our own burdens at His feet and pick up those that He knows will give us strength and bring eternal life. Please take a moment to create that mental picture. Envision yourself removing a pack from your back or shoulders, setting it aside, then picking up a new pack to carry instead. If we fail to leave our own natural burdens with Him, then all we do when we assume the responsibilities of membership in His kingdom is to pick up a second pack and increase a load we already are unable to bear alone.

Each of us needs to figure out what this means in our own lives, with our own personalities and struggles, but, at a minimum, we need to accept His atoning grace and quit beating ourselves up over our natural weaknesses and tendencies - those things for which He has paid the price already. We need to recognize and accept the forgiveness He has offered already. We need to believe Him and what He has promised us.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by guilt or inadequacy or the burdens of your life, may I suggest a simple solution - not an easy one and not one that always will happen completely and all at once, but the only one of which I know that truly will work. Find a quiet place, where you can kneel totally alone and unable to hear anything else, and pour out your soul to your Heavenly Father - able to approach Him directly because of the grace of His Son. Tell Him of your anxieties, your fears, your weakness, your pain - then ask Him to take the burden from you and help you walk away from it. Repeat that request (something like, "I gave it to you; please help me leave it at your feet.") whenever you begin to feel overwhelmed - even if it means you have to do so sometimes in the middle of the confusion and chaos of your daily life. Take a deep breath, close your eyes if you can, and ask Him to intercede once more and keep you from picking up your natural load.

I have a deep and abiding testimony that if you cast your burdens upon the Lord, He truly will sustain you as you shoulder His yoke and begin to carry the burden He has chosen to make your weakness become strength.

Healers in the Hands of God

Yesterday, I posted something Jami wrote last week: "Nobody can fix me quite as well as he who created me." To build on that thought, I want to post an excerpt from something I wrote last Fall. Here is it:

It is a basic medical truism that you cannot be cured of most illnesses unless you receive treatment for it – usually by going to someone who can heal you. In order to be healed, you need to expose the problem that is troubling you to someone who can recognize it and offer assistance that will alleviate your suffering and cure the issue.

In spiritual terms, we accept God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate healers, but I have come to believe that relatively few members understand fully the promises we make when we agree to take His name upon us. We often translate this as "being Christians," but "Christ" was only one of his titles - only one of the names by which He is known. It is a title, not necessarily a communicable name. There is not room here to discuss the full implications of this promise, but there is one name that we can assume - no matter our circumstances or limitations. It is Healer.

We promise to assume his role of Healer specifically when we promise to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. Just like any doctor, however, we simply cannot do this unless we are "open" to the sick and afflicted (either to their visits or through our own house calls) - unless we are aware of someone else’s pain and suffering – unless we know why they mourn and what comfort they need - unless we are able to see their warts. We might “fellowship” with each other on Sunday, but if we only see each other at our Sunday best - disabilities covered by white shirts and ties and warts carefully hidden beneath well-placed mascara - we completely miss the opportunity for the depth of full fellowship that allows us to act in the place of Jesus and heal in His stead.

I am struck by how Jesus healed. He didn't say, "Lock yourselves in your rooms and ask to be healed." Rather, He said, "Come unto me." Healing was not an impersonal event; it was full of touching and blessing and communicating and real physicality.

Think about it: To whom do you feel closest in life - and in your ward or branch? Is it because you know their joys and their pain - and they know yours? Is it because you have seen their warts, and they have seen yours? Perhaps, is it because you share a common type of wart - because you have shed a tear together or held each other as life seemed to shake around you? Is it because you have held their hand, embraced them and touched their lives in real and practical and powerful ways?

Truly, nobody can fix me quite as well as he who created me, but I can't help but believe that He can fix His children more fully if we are willing to be a medicinal or surgical tool in His hands.