Villagersonline : blogs : rodhugen : Pam Spray and my knees

From: rodhugen
Date: Thu Mar 11 08:03:52 MST 2004
Subject: Pam Spray and my knees

Responses
stevek: oil (3/11/04)

benjipark: Who Knows (3/12/04)

Responses (sorted by date)
benjipark: Who Knows (3/12/04)
stevek: oil (3/11/04)

I woke up this morning and my knees don't hurt. I wake up every morning and my knees kill me, but today they are pain free. They didn't pop and they didn't make noises and they didn't make me wince when I stood up. They were like the knees I used to have before I got old. I don't believe in healing. Let me clarify that. I don't believe that healing matters much to me in this world. Ultimately I am only healed when I step into my Abba's arms and He gives me that brand new body in which kness don't creak and groan and I look like what He intended me to look like. So I long for the ultimate healing while treating my present pain as just part of the suffering of living in a fallen world. I recognize that we will all have to die of something and, in my case, it probably won't be bad knees. I think Red Foxx once said that he felt sorry for all the health nuts who when they got old would be lying in hospital beds dying of nothing.
The book of James says that if you are sick you should ask the elders and they should pray over you and anoint yon with oil so you can be healed. My knees have been hurting so bad for so long that I asked Eric and the tribal leaders to pray over me. Keith went to the kitchen to get the olive oil, but couldn't find any and, as a joke, came back with a can of Pam Spray. I rolled my pant legs up above the knees and he proceeded to spray Pam on them. We laughed so hard that no one could pray for a long time. Then Russ reminded us that I had asked to have my knees prayed for and so Eric began to pray. Have I mentioned that I woke up this morning and my knees don't hurt? Do you know how sweet it is when your knees have made you cry in the morning because they hurt so bad and then suddenly they don't hurt anymore?
Remember, I don't have great faith and I don't even now expect that this will last. I doubt that Eric has magical prayers or that our leadership is particularly spiritual and gifted with the healing arts. I don't think it had anything to do with submission on my part or some human act of any kind. I don't believe that Pam has spiritual qualities that are missing in olive oil. But I think God took away my pain for a season and that He loves me and decided because I'm so lame in every sense of that word that I needed a break for a while. And I'm supposed to give Him glory when I am healed and I feel pretty healed at the moment so I'm thinking that He is pretty awesome and thought I should tell you all.
When I tore up my shoulder playing basketball, I also asked for prayer. I remember that night because we had actual olive oil and we anointed my shoulder and we pleaded with God to bring healing and we were a whole lot more serious than last night. I didn't get my shoulder healed. As a matter of fact it got a whole lot sorer because I made a smart remark to Sue and she reached over and smacked me on it. See Sue, I still haven't forgiven you for that. Shame lasers! Shame lasers! :-)
I love Sue and I love community and I love leaders who pray and I love when my knees don't hurt. And it made me weep for those of you whose pain is much worse and much deeper and who, despite the fact that you have been faithful, God has chosen not to heal. I'm not suggesting Pam and goofy elders praying over you. I am just weeping that I don't understand why I should get this respite while others whose pain is more awful must continue in their horrible struggle.
And both intellectually and deep inside I know that God is good whether my knees hurt or don't hurt. But it seems easier to know that when they were hurting bad yesterday and don't hurt any more today. So I pray for healing for the Village community so that all of you can laugh and rejoice in His good pleasure and move away from that place where He seems distant and cruel and life looks like the staircase in the Empire State building and you are on the first step with really bad knees.

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From: stevek
Date: Thu Mar 11 15:23:58 MST 2004
Subject: oil

Interesting how God works. If he can use the jawbone of an ass, I suspect he can use tribal elders and a can of grease! But in the case of the James scripture what the elders were called to do was to apply the medication indicated, and once the patient had submitted to the proper medical care they were to pray over the person for God's healing. The 'annointing with oil' was a reference to that medical treatment which was to go part and parcel with the prayer. I'm guessing that your whole regimen, not counting the grease, is working. But then, I could be wrong. God's ways are often not what I'd have suspected. Try bathing in Crisco and tell us what the result is...

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From: benjipark
Date: Thu Mar 11 19:23:03 MST 2004
Subject: Who Knows

Who knows why God does things the way he does? I remeber once, and this is really silly, my big toe was hurting. I'm not sure why, some kind of phantom pain thingy. Anyway, in all seriousness I prayed for god to take the pain away. In about 10 seconds it started hurting less. In about 45 seconds that pain was completly gone. Psycosomatic? Could be, but I don't think so. God has a way of giving us just enough of a miricale to be exactly what we needed at the time. Some times it is dramatic as in the case of Rods knees, and some times it isn't. I keep having to remind myself that when I pray for something, like having the pain go away, that maybe he didn't make the pain go away because that was how he was curing the cancer I never knew about. I belive that God always answers prayers for healing. Just not the way that I want, but then who wants no-pain cancer. I'll just trust that God has it all in his control.

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