Helping and Healing Business

The Lord gave me an analogy today as I talked with a dear friend.

Maybe it’s a stereotype that guys like to fix things, but I know that I, too, have a tendency to fix things or at least try to. One of my deepest desires and passions is to see people walk in freedom and receive healing. Naturally, this can tend towards a fix-it mentality. Being American we want to microwave things but God is into marinating them. I am guilty of this and the Lord has been slowly helping me learn how to walk with people through their troubles and not slap down a label or cure. Coming along side people, holding their hand, carrying them briefly, encouraging them, and simply being next to them. Clearly, I’ve not mastered this but I am working towards this idea of playing the role in simply helping the Father.

I realized that my role is not to fix someone. Simply, my role is to help the Father in His process of “fixing” someone. The vision I had entailed that of a little boy helping his father fix the car.

The boy has no idea how to maintain a car, fix a car, what parts to replace or repair…only the father does. But, the father can teach and use his children to accomplish a certain task. Does he necessarily need to? No. However, he wants to!

“Son, pass the wrench.” “Okay dad!”

Now, this help can look many different ways. For instance, the son has no idea what a wrench is. “No son, it’s that one over there.” “This one?” “No.” “This one?” “Yah, thank you.” The point here, we are the children helping and sometimes we make mistakes or we just don’t quite know how to help and provide what someone needs. The beauty is that it’s a learning process for both the one needing healing and the one trying to help.

Or I think of a little girl helping her mom cook. She doesn’t know how to cook but she can go get a measuring cup and pour a cup of flour. She begins to pour, tipping the bag and suddenly there’s a white floor and an overflowing cup of flour. “Oops! Sorry mommy.”

Sometimes we deliver wrong messages at the right time or right messages at the wrong time. Sometimes we just get the wrong tool to help. Other times we spill things. It’s a messy process all in all—this whole helping and healing business.

We are human. We are God’s children and we make mistakes. We are all learning.

As the helper we must never assume the role of the fixer. We are getting the wrench for the Father or taking something he gives us and delivering it. A word of encouragement. A revelation. A great insight. A thoughtful prayer. Practical help with a physical need. A listening ear.

So, the helper must have grace in that the one who’s needing healing may be slow to come around. The one needing healing must have grace in the fact that we are all learning and we don’t always know how to help.

We must practice our ability to listen and hear the Lord. He knows how we can and should help. He knows how to heal us. He knows how to best use us. He’s teaching us just as a Father teaches his son/daughter.