It's a Miracle !!!

 

In all my 25 years as a Christian, and for the past 23 years as a non believer, I have never witnessed a "miraculous event". I have never personally observed anything happen to anyone that was - at that time or later - referred to as or claimed to be a "miracle". I have never personally known or been acquainted with anyone who claimed to have been miraculously, physically healed by God - until now. 

I recently reconnected with Mary (not her real name), a long lost friend.  The last time we had seen each other was back in 1990, but we had been close friends as far back as the mid 70's  

These are Mary's words to me in a recent email (I suspect that it will come as no surprise that she is of the Full Gospel Charismatic tongues speaking persuasion):

"God, The Living God, The Only God, is so real. I continue to walk with Him each day. He has done so many miracles in my life. And He continues to do them for me again and again. There is an at length testimony of how He replaced, supernaturally, all of my female organs & my kidneys (which if you are interested I can write up & send another time). He totally miraculously healed me from degenerative disc disease which I had suffered from for years in severe spinal pain. On a different occasion, He healed me from an acute kidney infection. He supernaturally healed my guts. He has spoken to me, audibly. I have seen the feet of Jesus."

These are mighty bold claims, to say the least.  So in an instant, I went from not personally knowing anyone who had claimed to have experienced a miracle, to knowing someone who experienced an abundance of miracles, and claims that she continues to experience miracles "again and again".

As our email discussion progressed (digressed?) I had decided that I would not directly address her claims of miraculous healings.  I really had no desire to state what I felt was the obvious - that being - her CLAIMS were unbelievable to any rationally thinking person.  I simply ignored these claims because I knew nothing good could come out of discussing them.  I simply let her know that "claims" are not actual evidence that such claims are true.  I let her know that I am psychologically incapable of believing every claim that comes my way without being convinced by some accompanying EVIDENCE.  She just didn't get it.  She felt that her "experience" was evidence that God does heal people.

The discussion still didn't go very well, and after several back-and-forth's she quit responding - and that was that - reconnecting after more than 30 years and she cut me off after a few emails.  Note - I didn't bring up the subject of religion.  I was perfectly content to just catch up, exchange a few recent photographs, and then every few months send the "Hey Mary, hope all is well with you guys" email.  But she had asked me (amongst other questions): "How’s your walk with Jesus?", to which I responded with: "My walk with Jesus?  Good question.  After about 25 years as a Christian I left the faith - about 23 years ago.  If you want to know more I'll be glad to share." - that was the extent of my answer, until she asked for more.

Back to her claims of miraculous healing - I am going to be blunt, honest, but as gentle as I can be, but I guess it doesn't really matter as I suspect that Mary will never read this post:

"He has done so many miracles in my life. And He continues to do them for me again and again."

I suspect that this is not an uncommon claim amongst the Charismatics.  I suspect that members have such a strong desire to "experience" what other members in the church claim to have experienced, that their emotions take over and consciously or unconsciously they fabricate the supposed experience, and in order to maintain the emotional high that it gives them, they need more and more "miracles" throughout their lives.

"He replaced, supernaturally, all of my female organs & my kidneys . . . "

God wasn't content to just heal these body parts - he replaced them with . . . what . . . NEW parts?  I hope they were new and not used parts.  And how did she determine that they had been "replaced" and not merely repaired?  Honestly, I could have asked but I was genuinely afraid to read the answer.

"He totally miraculously healed me from degenerative disc disease . . . He healed me from an acute kidney infection. He supernaturally healed my guts."

How in the world am I supposed to evaluate these claims?  And actually, why would I?  Her life is built around believing that she is so special to God, that her faith in God is so strong, and that he actually performed miracles on her body.  That has to be a powerful feeling, a feeling that is impenetrable by reason.

"He has spoken to me, audibly." 

? . . . How did she recognize that it was Jesus that was speaking to her?

"I have seen the feet of Jesus."

?   ?   ?

Here's the thing - Mary and I are both in our mid 60's.  Both of her parents passed away in their mid 80's.  My father was in his early 80's when he died and my mother is now in her mid 80's.  Very likely, barring an accidental death or severe illness, I will live for another 20 years at most, and the same goes for Mary.  In spite of all her claims of miraculous healing, she will die within a few years before or after my death - thems the facts!  So, after all these supposed healing's that she has "experienced", she will die, likely from some sort of organ failure, perhaps an organ that her god fixed or replaced.  In other words, the healing's that she claims to have experienced are not permanent.

In response to her claims I pretty much limited it to - "where's my miracle Mary"?  Why has God shown so much favor to her yet seemingly completely ignored me?  How about these little ones - where is their miracle?

As it turns out, Mary actually believes that if you want a miracle, you should go to a church where miracles are happening.  She said: "Your question of “why you, and not me”.  Perhaps can partly be answered by —  If you want to get wet, you have to hang out under the spout where the water comes out.  Go where there is a REAL move of God."

That's the answer - go to a church where people like her are claiming to be experiencing miraculous healing's.  It's that easy - well, easy for me - not so easy for billions of people who do not live within walking distance of a "Full Gospel" congregation . . . like the children above . . . ?

Let's assume for the sake of argument that Mary actually did experience what she claims to have experienced - she was healed by the direct action of the God of the bible - the Christian God - the God that I no longer believe exists.  At some point, years ago, after Mary prayed, and / or others in her family and church prayed for her, they perhaps spoke in tongues and laid hands on her (remember, she is of the Full Gospel Charismatic tongues speaking persuasion), God performed miraculous healing's on her body, and to this day she remains in this healed condition and God continues to perform more and more miracles for her.

I have to ask - WHY?  To what benefit is it for God to heal everything that ails Mary (well, everything except her eyesight - Mary, like me, wears glasses - and she has worn glasses most of her life . . . ?) yet God seemingly ignores the prayers for healing of the vast majority of people?  

How does God's healing activities for Mary help anyone but Mary ? 

Imagine that you are a member of Mary's congregation, and you have a serious health issue.  You have prayed for God to heal you, and others in your church have prayed as well, but there is no hiding it - your healing never comes.  You suffer with this issue for the rest of your life - and yet, Mary's testimony is, "He has done so many miracles in my life. And He continues to do them for me again and again."  I suppose you might be happy for Mary, but surely you would have to wonder, "Why God - why not me - why always Mary and never me?"  I have to wonder if Mary can even recognize this disparity?  I wonder if she is even emotionally capable of seeing how her testimony can be anything but helpful or uplifting to those people who are desperate for relief, pray consistently for relief, yet live out their lives and never receive any relief?  Why not me God?

God is famous for ignoring the prayers of amputees - and I mean famous!  He may have healed amputees in distant third-world countries, but here in the USA, he is FAMOUS for offering a resounding "NO" to the prayers of the amputee, regardless of the church affiliation.  I mean, not just "NO", but not a single "YES", ever !

So, I guess I am stuck with living the life of a skeptic.  I just don't have the mental make-up to simply believe the claims of divine healing.  I suppose that I never did, even when I was a Christian.  Sure, I could believe that Jesus came back to life (go figure) but God healing the sick and infirm'd in this modern time, that was apparently too hard a pill to swallow :(

Mary never responded to my last email.  Her husband did - he is a pastor . . . of sorts . . . I think I'll do a short post on what little I know about him sometime in the future - he never responded to my last two emails that I sent to him.  Unfortunately, this is typical Christian behavior, in my experience, sort of hit-and-run Christianity.

One last thought:

Here is the difference (apparently) between Mary and me - I have ailments. 

~ a nervous twitch that has plagued me since I was in middle school.

~ slightly elevated blood pressure as well as blood sugar.

~ slight numbness in both my feet.

~ lower back pain that I have been plagued with for many years.

~ failing eye sight.

~ 1/3rd of my teeth are missing.

But in spite of these minor problems I am fairly healthy.  I can mow our several acre lawn, do minor maintenance on our home and vehicles, go for long walks, ride a bike, go kayaking, etc. 

Being who I am and believing what I believe, when my condition gets worse, which it. undoubtedly will, and if I suddenly became a praying person and desired God to heal me, my prayer would go something like this:  

"God, don't bother healing me . . . heal this person instead . . ."  

I honestly would have no desire to tell people - "Look at what God has done for ME" like Mary did.

But who knows - perhaps if I were to become a Christian again my attitude would change, but I sure hope it wouldn't.

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com