Wholeness and Healing

I live in downtown Alton, 6th street to be exact. It’s not an unusual occurrence to see people of different races, ages, & socioeconomic levels walk by our house daily. A fountain across from our house is turned on by the city in the summer months and again, it’s not unusual to see people stop and sit by it, play in it, and even, from time to time, clean up and bath in it. When Dane and I go for daily walks in our neighborhood, it’s not unusual to have people come up to us and ask for help. Actually it’s not all that unusual for us to have people come right up to our front door and ring the doorbell to ask for help.

I wish I could do more to help. Honestly, the problems, struggles, mental illness and situations we see are overwhelming. We’ve handed out money, food, extension cords, and various other things. But it’s obvious to me that anything we try to do or help with is just a drop in the bucket.

While I think it’s important to do what we can and trust that even small efforts are worth it, I find myself coming away from these types of experiences feeling like I wish there was far more that could be done. Holistic healing and dealing with the source of the situation rather than just the very surface of it.

Acts 3 speaks to me. A man who hasn’t ever walked his entire life is begging Peter and John for some money. Probably just expecting a few coins, surely his expectations aren’t that high. Peter makes eye contact with him and asks the man to make eye contact with him as well. When someone is in need and you make eye contact...somehow it makes it a whole lot harder to walk on by and do nothing. Peter says that they don’t have any silver or gold to give, but then he offers the man something far better, something the man hadn’t even thought to ask for, he offers the man healing and wholeness; a new life. Instantly, the man is up on his feet, the very same feet, legs and ankles that have never worked for him before, jumping, leaping, and walking.

What did that feel like? And for Peter and John it must have been amazing to be able to help the man with what really mattered, and not just what was on the surface. For the man who was healed, wow, what a miracle! He even went into the temple with Peter and John that day instead of just sitting at the gate.

I read this quote recently from a Richard Rohr book called Yes/And…

“Whole people see and create wholeness wherever they go; divided people see and create splits in everything and everybody.”

Acts 3 to me is all about Peter and John living in a holistic way. They saw the man in a way that no one else had. It’s easy to categorize and label people. But what would it look like to see people not just as rich or poor, black or white, old or young, man or woman, or whatever other binary we might use, but instead to see people just as people? How do we become holistic people who see and create wholeness wherever we go? That’s worth thinking about. That is the power of the gospel to me.

Pursuing wholeness,

Ruth