Fast forward maybe 7 years or so to the present. I am now realizing that healings do happen, however we can't just expect everyone to be healed as long as they have enough faith. It's just not the way God operates from what I can gather. However, I know that God can and has healed people.
So with that "prelude" if you will, I take you back to this past weekend. Steph (my wife) and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary 2 months early because our baby boy, Brayden, is due right around our actual anniversary so we were pretty confident we wouldn't be able to celebrate on our anniversary. Anyways, so Friday night we spent downtown going to dinner, going to a movie, etc and by the time we got home we were both pretty thoroughly exhausted. So I went through my normal bedtime route, floss, brush my teeth, mouthwash, shower and then crash for the night. The next morning we both slept in later than normal but around 9 am I got up and did my normal morning routine, brush my teeth, wash my face, put my glasses on and then head out to the kitchen to read my Bible some.However, as I began to walk to the kitchen, I noticed something strangely different. I couldn't see very well. My first thought was there must be a smudge on my glasses, so I went and got my glasses cleaner but to no avail, still my vision was foggy. So I thought maybe I had some "eye boogers" but after a thorough examination, this wasn't the case either. However, when I took my glasses off to rub my eyes, I noticed something out of the ordinary, I could see the clock across the room. This was strange because without my glasses, I definitely could not normally see that clock. I don't have terrible eyes but I have bad enough eyes that I would be a hazard to the general public if I drove without my glasses or contacts. My thoughts immediately went back to those books I had read about healing and I thought "I am healed! God has healed my vision and now I can see without any glasses or contacts!" I began to walk back to the room to explain to Steph how our great God had healed my vision...then I began to think some more. I began to get suspicious and after one close look at my eyes in the mirror I realized that a miracle had not happened after all. I had left my contacts in all night. You can imagine my disappointment...
How different are we as Christians though? We all have "bad eyes" if you will in our Christian life. The fact is, we can't do things without Christ. However, how many of us either walk around life with "bad eyes" relying in our own strength to do things and not trusting in the strength that Christ can provide our eyes. Or how many of us say to ourselves, if only I was (fill in the blank with your "weakness" becoming a "strength") then I could do this or that? If I had perfect vision, then I would no longer need to rely on my contacts or glasses anymore, in fact they would be collecting dust while I walked around in my own strength with no need of them. This is one of the reasons I feel that God doesn't give us perfect patience, strength, knowledge, etc. He wants us to rely on Him.
I think about Paul and his thorn in the flesh. It says in 2 Corinthians 12 how he asked God 3 times to remove it but God's response was simply "No I will not remove this hardship from you because my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in your weakness." Then Paul says "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamity. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
We may want all of our hardships to go away and to have the perfect strength to get through all the trials and junk that life may throw at us, but instead of that, we should pray that we, like Paul, will be content regardless of our circumstances and regardless if we feel that in our own power we can accomplish this or that. We pray this knowing that when we are weak and cannot see clearly, with God as our strength, we can see 20/20.
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