Several years ago, my brother was allowed to witness an open-heart
surgery. During the procedure, the patient's heart had been stopped from
beating. When it came time to restart it, despite repeated attempts, the
medical staff was unable to cause the heart to beat again. Finally, although
the patient was obviously unconscious, the surgeon leaned over and spoke into
the patient's ear, "We need your help. We cannot get your heart restarted.
Tell your heart to start beating." Incredibly, in that instant, the
patient's heart began to beat again!
Proverbs 13:12 tells us, "Hope deferred makes the heart
sick." But the diagnosis can change! God has promised healing to the
brokenhearted (Luke 4:18). There is a crisis point, however—one we all reach—in
the process of healing from hope deferred: choosing to embrace the healing
process. Hope—and healing—is a choice that must be made.
As you probably know too well, experiencing hope deferred does not
require a choice—pain and disappointment are facts of life. Healing, however,
does require a choice. Making the simple but powerful choice to hope again is
the first step toward healing.
Wilma Rudolph, three-time gold medalist in the 1960 Olympics and once
known in the field of running as the world's fastest woman, said, "The
doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed
my mother."
Born prematurely into a very poor family and the 20th of 22 children,
Wilma was not permitted to receive care at the local white hospital. For the
next several years, her mother took her once a week for two years to the
nearest medical facility that would treat her—a 90-mile round trip. Wilma
Rudolph's life is an amazing story of achievement against the odds—but the
story began with the right choices.
Like the Olympic champion and her mother, you will have to choose the
power of hope. I realize this puts some of the responsibility for healing on
you, but it is also an incredibly liberating truth. Healing—freedom from hope
deferred—is a choice that can be made.
Scripture is filled with promises that you have this power to choose
life over death. The Lord actually told the Israelites to "choose
life" (Deut. 30:19). You don't have the luxury of choosing never to have
challenges, but you do get to choose how you respond.
People sometimes refer to their difficult times as winter seasons.
There is a beautiful picture associated with this in Ezekiel 47. The prophet
Ezekiel was given a vision of the river of God. In this vision, the river
produced life and healing everywhere it went. Interestingly, the Hebrew word
for river in the
passage is nachal, and means "a stream, especially a winter torrent." Some
streams and rivers are dry during certain times of the year. They fill up,
however, when there is rain, or, as in this case, when the spring thaw melts
the snow and ice on the mountains. Tiny rivulets develop, coming together to
form streams and, eventually, becoming nachalim (rivers).
Though Ezekiel's winter river began as a trickle in verse 1, it eventually
became a mighty unfordable river by verse 5.
As your winter season changes to spring, God's healing will likely
begin as a mere trickle. Keep choosing life! You can be confident that the river
will deepen and that God will use the snow and ice of your spiritual winter to
bring a deep flow of His Spirit to you.
For those who are confused and disillusioned, for the heart grieving
from pain and loss, for the faithful but weary soldier whose stream-bed is dry,
for those who have lost their first love connection to God, for the Gideons of
the world who are heartsick with hope deferred ... your season is changing. The
warmth of spring is going to do its work, and summer is coming.
Thank God winter doesn't last forever. The river of healing will flow
to you, and you will drink its healing power. Hope deferred will end. Tell your
heart to beat again!
By Dutch Sheets
