“Deep down every hurting heart knows/ We need the healer. / And only Jesus is the healer.” – Healer, Casting Crowns
“The final coming of Christ . . . will be, in his own time, the final denouement of God, who is the blessed controller of all things.”- 1 Timothy 6:14-15 (PHILLIPS)
My hometown of Evergreen Park, IL, incorporated on December 20, 1893. Today Chicago borders the suburb on the north, east, and south. While Oak Lawn and Hometown border the village of churches on the west.
Dr. Leonard J. Maier, who lived about four blocks from the Henning household, managed my medical care for twenty-eight years. Thus, the good doctor observed my growth through my toddler years, grade school and high school, college, graduate school, first teaching job, and marriage. In addition, Dr. Maier carried out most of his medical practice within a 1.5-mile radius of his home. That included office hours, hospital rounds, and house calls. Yes, house calls!!
Most significantly, three memories of Dr. Maier stand out. First, after removing my tonsils at age seven, Dr. Maier took me in his arms and carried me back to my ward bed. Also, when I needed treatment for frequent sinus infections, he always booked me as his last appointment. Finally, after one such visit, he asked me for a ride home. Because his wife drove the Cadillac that day.
Dr. Maier, a faithful Roman Catholic, embodied the spirit of a well-known British poster from World War II. Keep calm and carry on. However, as Max Lucado points out in You’ll Get Through This (2013), calamities often leave us off-balance and confused. For example, consider the crisis Joseph navigated in Egypt. Famine created catastrophe on a global scale. Yet, Josephy understood that God preceded the famine, would outlive the famine, and was all over that famine.
So, Pastor Lucado queries, do you find it more natural to recite your woes than you do heaven’s strength? If so, that makes for a tough life. Even though deep down every hurting heart knows the need for Jesus, it’s easy to assume God isn’t in your crisis. And, while God doesn’t manufacture pain, Max stresses, He certainly puts that pain to good use.
But, a dramatic crisis doesn’t always require a dramatic response. In the case of Joseph, he triumphed over the famine with a calm, methodical plan. Furthermore, in recent years a management guru studied leadership in turbulent times. He and a fellow researcher determined that those leaders weren’t more creative, visionary, charismatic, or risk-seeking. Instead, they led their teams with a rather surprising method of self-control in an out-of-control world.
In conclusion, Max underscores, trust God to help you make a plan. Because God’s sovereignty fails to negate our responsibility. Just the opposite occurs: it empowers our responsibility. Therefore, when we place our trust in God, we think more clearly and react more decisively. Consequently, Pastor Lucado exhorts us to pray, trust, and act. Trust God to do what only He can do. Then obey God and do what you can. Hence, don’t trust in the broken to make you whole. There’s no new kind of rescue coming. Just the one you’ve always known. Jesus, the healer.
Deep down every hurting heart knows we need Jesus. Max encourages:
“Don’t let the crisis paralyze you . . . the sadness overwhelm you. Don’t let the fear intimidate you. To do nothing is the wrong thing. To do something is the right thing. And to believe is the highest thing. Just . . . keep calm and carry on.”