After a furlough of almost 1.5 years, I’m writing again under the most unusual circumstances. A recent medical condition has brought a sudden halt to my life and it has allowed me to see quite a few things from a fresh perspective. And with a tint of irony and perhaps prophetic touch, my last two posts were about suffering and healing.
Few weeks into this experience and I’ve realised the importance and place of compassion in healing. Certainly, the motivation for healing has to be compassion, before a desire to see the miraculous and supernatural. The gospels are marked with many examples, Matt 14:14, Matt 20:34, Mark 1:41, Mark 5:19, Mark 9:22, Luke 7:13, Luke 10:33. Jesus had compassion for those who came to him and healed them. Performing a miracle was a non-issue for Jesus, as compared to seeing deliverance for those who are desperate and in need. I’m afraid this is where we who are in the pentecostal and charismatic circles have generally gotten it wrong. As Reggie McNeal has said, we are using the wrong scorecard! If we purely chase after “signs and wonders”, without remembering that such demonstrations are signposts of God’s love, grace and justice, then we would have gotten the tree but missed the forest.
