The courage to find health

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
(Mar 5:25-34)





I reread this story today, and I was struck by the courage of this little old lady. The lady had been suffering from bleeding for years, she had suffered physically with pain associated from her ailment, but also the pain of being made a social outcast as she was ceremonally unclean.

This little old lady broke the mores and went towards Jesus touched him and was healed.

One thing that is in about men is that we are hopeless at asking for help. I remeber about a year and a half ago, I got a bad bout of food poisoning, which lasted a week. The reason it lasted so long, was that I did not go to the doctor for the first couple of days. I thought (maybe out of delusion from the fever) that I could tough it through on my own. It was when I realised that i was not getting any better and was getting particularly weak and dehydrated, that I was convinced by the Crawfords (who I was boarding with at the time) that I should go to the doctor. Soon as I started taking the antibiotics, I got better.

It is like this so many times in our life, we faiil to take the steps to health. We know there is somethinbg out of kilter, it may be we suffer from anxiety, we are addicted to porn, we are addicted to substances, we suffer from loneliness, we are consumers, etc etc, and we fail to take the time to ask for help.

The cry for help is seen as a sign as weakness, but I think its a sign of courage, courage to say that we are human, that we want to be better people. Courage and faith that we know there is a better, healthier way to live than we have been.