Article: Christian healing evangelists should understand what cancer and NF is or risk judging people
A well-meaning lady came to pray for me. She’s a member of the infamous healing ministry of Jean Lim. The first things this lady asked was whether I have accepted Jesus Christ, have I been baptised, do I read the bible and pray, do I go to church, and whether I have accepted the Holy Spirit.
I felt that it was strange of her to question me this way. Yes I go to church, I have been baptised five years ago, I do pray and read the bible.
Maybe she thought that since I hadn’t received healing from God, I must be a not good enough Christian.
During our meeting, I tried to keep my thoughts clear, my mind open and listen what she had to say. She attested that she has seen people with cancer getting cured. “Perhaps so”, I reminded myself to listen. If I ask God more earnestly, I might just get cured.
As I recalled our meeting last night, something I have long known occured to me. She mentioned Cancer, which is curable today. When cancerous cells which contain a mutated DNA are killed and eliminated, none would be left behind to proliferate and healthy cells can thrive. Many of the people whose cancer went into remission are not even Christians! So, I asked her in an e-mail if it’s possible that those cancer patients who claimed to have been cured by the Holy Spirit were in fact healed by nature.
I bet many NF patients worldwide are Christians but none have claimed total healing so far.
My NF2 friend named Rebecca Dufek sent an e-mail which I read just now. It’s about another of her marathon runs to raise funds for NF research. It’s always encouraging to read about Rebecca’s quests so that ail of us can be cured one day, not just for herself.
Do you have the heart to tell Rebecca that the Holy Spirit will heal her if only she spends more time praying and reading the bible?
I don’t. I can’t help feeling judged.
And I still believe that the best thing we can do for people and for God is through service, serving people. Like the hospital I go to.
St. Vincent Medical Center, I blogged about it here.
Cancer as most people know it, proliferates to replace healthy cells. The proliferation can be stopped. But in NF patients, every cell already has a mutated DNA. It doesn’t require cell proliferation before we develop tumors.
4 comments
I’ve never asked God to cure my NF, nor would I. I do believe He can and does cure people’s diseases though. I’d just rather He concentrate on others rather than me. Whenever you’re going into surgery I ask Him to guide your surgeon’s hands, your nurses’ care, and esspecially for your quick recovery and return to strength. I have a real problem with people who say one hasn’t been cured because their faith is lacking or maybe non-existant. I’ve been known to say some pretty hurtful things to them. It’s even more fun if they have some minor physical imperfection (and this is the only time I’d ever do this) I can point out to them and ask why God did that to them and what wrong they commited. I believe God has His own reasons for the Miracles He performs and I don’t question. Nt long ago a friend asked me if he could lay hands on me and ask God to cure my NF. I told him he could (I didn’t want to disapoint him) but while he was praying I was silently asking God to help someone else. I appreciated my friend’s concern and prayer but I feel that NF (and mine is really pretty mild) is my own journey and I’m curious where it might lead. I consider it not really a blessing, but it’s been a way to learn a lot about myself, my shortcomings, annd how I treat and respond to others around me.
Mark
I think the sad thing is many people equate religion with healing of diseases. It not only involves cancer, NF2 etc
There were a few cases in NZ, where the parents of the child refused to seek medical attention for their sick child but instead relying on “prayers”. Of course, in the end the child dies. There were some where the state managed to interfere and made the sick child a ward of the state, hence allowing the state to make any medical decisions because of the negligence of the parents.
While we know most parents mean well for their child, but when their irrational thinking is jeopardising their child’s health and recovery because of religion then it becomes a problem.
Scientific research has shown that people who have faith tend to do better in recovery, unfortunately faith alone doesn’t help in the healing. And surely whether or not you are a good Christian is not the answer.
So I just like to think that we need to see religion and recovery as separate entities. It can work in conjunction of one another, but I don’t think it’s wise to say because you have one, you will have the other.
Mark: I share your senstiment. After so many years living with this condition, we’d learn to look beyond our own needs and live inspite of the illness. I would remind myself that NF is not the worst thing in the world. Other people may be suffering much more and in greater pain. This world is so big that me and my problems are really tiny. Once we have come to accept our illness, we can see that we are the sum total of all our experiences with the illness. So when someone tells me to have more faith in order to be healed, it’s almost like questioning my existence.
Sabrina: The case you mentioned reminds me of the U.S. Bible Belt. It can get very scary when parents mix religion and child-rearing.