Closet Healers
“But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.” Luke 22:51
“She came to work in the kitchen at Bagley. Normally she is a quiet person, non assuming person who is not aggressively friendly. But I noticed her spending a lot of time working out helping to keep we tables clean. She was not only talking, but was physically touching those who had lost their homes. I don’t know what got into her.”
Most of our churches have closet healers in them if we learn to look for them. They are quiet, or withdrawn fleeing the limelight of church life. They are the people who make sure the wheels are greased, and ruffled feathers are smoothed over. During time of crisis, or in a disaster sight they pick up the underlying needs of those who are hurting, and become responsive.
They are willing to cry with those who need comfort. Reach out and hug those who are in need of human touch and emotional support. At the University of Dubuque they have official an campus mom. She wonders the campus, greets students at meal time in the cafeteria, visits the doors and simply makes herself available. She is available to listen, to support, for hugs, and to share tears during times of need. The University has found that her very presence helps in bringing stability to the campus.
The reason I am writing this devotional is to challenge you to be sensitive to these closet healers, and for some of you to explore the idea that you might be one. Yes, you my readers. Closet healers believe system allows for miracles to take place, and the power of prayer to bring about change regardless of how slow that change may be. You may have always been sensitive and pick up things that others have not even noticed. Sometimes when you reach out and take somebody’s hand or give them a hug you can feel the Spirits energy flowing through you.
Lord help me to hear my heart and respond to those who need your love. Amen
Hot Lines
“Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.” Psalm 5:2
“Hello, this is the Iowa Hot Line, how can I help you?”
Resources and finding the right place to look for help can be of critical importance during times of transition. There is a vast spectrum of resources available to help people during times of crisis and often times getting to the right organization or person is can make the difference between successfully meeting a need and not having that need met. A place to look for this help in Iowa is their Hot Line which is 1-800-447-1985 and in Wisconsin the referral number is 1-800-362-8255. Sometimes as we move into a carrying mode we become aware of problems people are experiencing. These can range from finding money to heat a home to finding help after a flood, tornado, or storm. We are not able to keep up with ever changing spectrum of resources available, but finding the right place to look for help is the first step sometimes in answering a problem. For some making lots of calls during times of crisis just adds to the stress. So one of those things you can do to assist them is to making some of the early preliminary calls making sure you have the right connection.
Just a reminder, there are many people who do not like talking on the phone. Stress levels increase in dealing with voice activated response or long waiting periods to talk with a real person. For others they might feel comfortable talking on the phone, but when it comes to actually going to a strange place to meet people they do not know can give them cold feet and find reasons to cancel out or not show up for appointments with people who could actually help. Which means going the extra mile for those in need of help and support sometimes is not simply finding resources, but actually walking through those doors with them.
Help me to walk with those in need.
Amen
Inter-Connections
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
“Last night I was with my late husband, and we talked. I have always known that he has been watching over me.”
During times of crisis we become open to sources of strength that many not be open to us at other times. This is true with relationship of those who have actually gone through the vale of death. Obviously this is not the kind of conversation that would be shared with just anybody. For those who have these kinds of experiences and they are a lot more common than one would suppose there is a sacredness to them. They are not shared with the intent of being debated, or to bring ones emotional stability into questions.
For those who have these experiences there is a healing presence that affects their emotional and spiritual wellbeing. It might be compared to Jesus speaking to the storm and the winds and waves subside, leaving a new found peace. St. Theresa, in her book Interior Castles writes that when God speaks to us those words, visions or experiences are with us the rest of our lives. Each time we think or talk about the happening we revisit the experience, and replay the scene. This might be compared to replaying a scene on a DVD allowing us to relive the intensity of the moment.
When someone shares these kinds of experiences with you, you should be sensitive to sacred nature of what is being shared. Asking questions that better help you understand the dream or experience if done with honest openness can be a rewarding experience for both you and the sharer. A willingness to share similar experiences or stories you have read or encountered help in validating the experience for then, allowing them to understand they are not crazy.
Thank you Lord for the inter connectedness of your world on both sides of the vale. Amen
Watching
“You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.” Song of Solomon 4:15
“The crest of the river will be 3 feet higher and carry the river to 18 feet above flood stage. The river has crested in …. and it is projected that it will crest later today.” A wave of destruction is headed toward you, and there is nothing you can do, but stand behind the sand bagged levees and pray.
It might be on CNN, the Nightly News or the radio that we listen to, information about the crest, as it moves down a waterway. Today it is Arkansas that is bracing, and yesterday it was Missouri or Wisconsin or Iowa. The names of the states and communities are home for somebody who is awaiting the inevitable- the moving river crest like a slowly moving monster that devours everything in it’s path. Cities, small towns, farms, resorts, camping areas, churches and public buildings are all gobbled up by this consuming wall of water. During those times, as they continue their last minute preparation, residents reach out to God seeking the strength to withstand whatever will take place. It is hard to exactly describe how our prayers feed into the ecology of God’s giving strength, courage, or sheer fortitude to deal with the tempest.
This transmission of spiritual strength might be compared to pulling our car up to a gas pump, with prayer acting as the hose through which God’s energy is dispensed. When we pray for a community, or individual, it might be compared to us adding additives to the underground tanks at a gas station from which need periodic refilling. During disasters, many reach out seeking to fill their spiritual tanks, so to speak. Because of the high demands, it becomes imperative that we take the time to assist in lifting our prayers and keeping God’s prayer reserves full and flowing.
Use my prayers, Oh Lord.
Amen
Confidentially
“Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.” Psalm 5:2
“We are handing out a number of cases with which we need help. In some cases there are simply dollar and cent line items and in others there is the need for volunteers to help with things from building fences to rebuilding foundations under buildings”
We, as a long term committee, looked at fact sheets concerning the needs being presented by the case workers. There was no way of identifying the communities they came from or individuals involved. The case workers had met repeatedly with these individuals discussing resources, available social services, or funding resources. This is a normative part of the case workers job. As the availability of outside resources are exhausted, they bring the case to us.
Sometimes these needs are easily met with a few hundred dollars, and a few volunteers. But in some cases, the sheer magnitude and financial need requires a number of organizations to move in a joint effort to address the problem. This all takes place on a committee level with members never knowing who actually will be recipients of their work.
This confidentiality is actually a double edged sword. On one hand, particularly in small towns, asking for help can affect one’s social and even economic status. Recipients of assistance compare the kind and amounts of help that they receive and question what might be perceived as fairness. Secondly, those giving out assistance can become power brokers in their communities, with those receiving assistance as owing something to them at some later election or social amenity.
As we work through this list of people needing help, give us the wisdom to assist people without any thoughts of our own well being.
Amen
Looking
“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” (Mark 8:18-19a)
“I’ve moved into a new home, and the church helped me through the process. But the problem is that I do not even know what I have lost until I go to look for something that isn’t there.” A pastor whose home had been destroyed told me.
I must confess that I regularly misplace things, and sometimes spend hours and days looking for things until I finally find them or give up the search. This is even more complicated if I have taken a move in the last few years. But I wonder what it would be like if for those who have had their homes destroyed and what is left of their belongingsbelongs are stored in friends garages, rental spaces, or just here or there.
While we can easily replace some thingssomething’s, there are irreplaceable things. I once copied over a CD on my computer that had a year’s worth of my writing. I did not realize what had transpired until sometime later when attempting to retrieve a file. Then I realized that year’s worth of my work had been erased and no longer was available to me. Just writing about it reminds me of that empty pit in my stomach that is still there even today.
One -woman share about losing all her mother’s Christmas decorations as their cellar flooded. Every year, as she starts to decorate for Christmas, the picture of those destroyed decorations will arise in her thinking. Then we might ask just how many years will shesee find herself working through some depression because of this experience, only God will know.
Prayer: Lord, our memories are a great and terrible blessing. Great when we can remember the good times, magical moments, and joy that we experience in life. Terrible when we relive the heartbreak, disasters and struggle we face. Lord, help us to remember the good times and some how forget the bad. Amen
Two Thousand
“Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)
“Two thousand dollars, what did they do with all that money?” When FEMA handed out cards allowing people to access $2,000, CNN and the news media lined up to get pictures of this world shaking experience. Then we responded like the son who stayed home while the prodigal son went on with his life.
“When you talk about $2,000 just how far do you really think that takes you when there are four of us in the family? By the time, I bought a few things to get up and running it was gone. The way people talked, you would have thought that it was a million dollars or something.”
“You don’t realize just how dependent you are on a weekly check until it isn’t there anymore, and you find yourself standing in the unemployment lines.”
“My husband worked for a guy under the table,- you know what I mea,n he never paid any unemployment or anything like that. Now all that we are living on is my SSI checks and a little child support when it comes in.”
“When you’re living a comfortable life, you kind of take for granted everything that you have worked hard for. for granted. When those things are taken away and you’re starting from scratch,… it’s hard and you have to start all over again.”
“In 1993, FEMA assistedattempted in their buy out of homes in the flooded community of Garber, Iowa by paying home owners for 125% of the property’s properties value. They did not buy rental properties or small businesses in the same community.” For your information FEMA puts together the money for a buy out only after local town and county officials decide that taking this direction is in the best interest of all those involved.
Prayer: Lord, there is a lot involved with dealing with the economic issues involved with a disaster. Lord, rather than we being quick to judge what is right or wrong, give me an understanding heart that hears all the sides of the stories. Amen
Help Needed
“But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2:18)
The Emergency Manager shared about having her basement flooded a few years ago. “After the flood, I had someone show up with a mop bucket and a bottle of bleach. “What I needed were some people to help me.”
After working around disaster sights in Iowa for the last couple of years, I decided to do a research paper on the role of churches in dealing with disaster. Pastors enjoy talking about things that their churches successfully have accomplished that is our basic nature. Therefore, I thought about getting them to fill out a questionnaire about their response to disasters that had taken place within 15 miles of their churches. To my surprise, there was little response, and some of the responses I got were that they took up an and offering, or prayed for the people who had been afflicted.
Dorothy Day, one of the co- founders of the Catholic Worker movement, noted that when a disaster hits that all social structures also crumble. That means that social, religious, economic barriers that normally separate people become null and in void. People in need of help, emotional support, and assistance are open to people and groups that they would not be normally be open to.. The best time to share God’s love is when people are in need of love. The support of the church and clergy is most important when people find their lives caught in chaos. The best time to feed the hungry is when the they hungry areand in need.
If, after a disaster, one wanderswonders around asking the people affected what is their most pressing need, do. Do you know what they just might tell you? Then, in responding, we just might be God’s hands that day.
Prayer: Lord, if all we do is lift up our voice for others and do not respond to their needs, we have fallen short of what you have called us to do. By asking you to do what we ourselves were unwilling to do we have been unfaithful. Lord, hear our prayer.
Amen
Care Takers
“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
She quietly sat at her mother’smothers side as we discussed the family’s families struggle in digging out after Katrina. Her mother had experiencedexperiences considerable depression, her stepfather was unable to hold a job, and her brother just walked out the door mad. She had become a primary carecare taker of in her family during this catastrophe, unbeknownst to those who worked with family.
As an adult, it is often easier to deal with other adults, than it is dealing with children. In looking more closely at disaster and the role that children play, they often are called upon to assist with rescue of family members, to assist with the clean up, and get their lives back together, which sometimes means leaving their homes, moving to new schools and making new friends.
Children and youth are usually responsive to people who take the time to care for them and care enough to ask questions that allow them to share. Asking about school, their the dreams, and eating or physical problems they have faced since the disaster are ways of opening conversations that could be very revealing and healing to the child. Telling them that is ok to be angry, frustrated or even depressed and that it does not mean that there is anything wrong with them, after all we are just human.
Children also learn from their parents the appropriate way of dealing with trauma. If families do not sit andis talk about it, or bury their emotions, children will grow up believing that you should not share your struggles and problems. Children are limited in their abilities and mobility to access outside resources to assist them through traumatic times. If children see substance abuse, or fighting, as a way of dealing with family conflict, how will they deal with that as adults?
Prayer: Lord, if we want emotionally healthy children it is imperative that they see healthy role models. Lord, send me.
Amen
Searching
“She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” (Matthew 9:21)
“We’re out here all alone. New Orleans is sucking up allat the news, but our homes were destroyed, too.”
Eighty percent of our nation is classified as rural area, and houses 20% of our population. In rural settings, resources and access to emergency medical and physiological support services are often in short supply. Clergy now find themselves multi- point parishes, which are dealing with growing amounts of poverty, substance addiction, and economic depression. As work teams go into the gulf area I just wonder how many, will end up in rural settings.
I once heard a statement at the United Methodist Annual Conference that the tornadoes that went through our statestates did not do a lot of damage they only hit a few farms. A farm wife once said that they like to see tornadoes hit farms farm rather than towns, but what about the farmers, she asked. Who is there for them to help dig out from destruction?
A farmer shared, “This farm was high and dry for hundred of years ok before the city expanding with massive shopping mails that dump the water into creeks that run down our valley. Now when there is a big rainran, guess who gets flooded out. You areYour right, they expand their tax base and we pay for consequences. Not not much of a trade off, from my point of view. Now every time we see a storm is coming, we prepare for the worst. That means our lives now revolve around meteorological reports. I just wish somebody would hear what we are trying to say to the city.”
In a restaurant a man said, “Oh, she has been living down by the river ever since I can remember, she is just used to being flooded out.”
Prayer: Lord, hear the cries of the poor, disenfranchised, the disempowered, and those that seek your support. Jesus, you found the lost and overover looked by society. Help us to find the perishing and share a message of light and hope. Amen