Hope is Healing

I walked into the ICU waiting room hoping no one would be there. I had no desire to have the conversation that would follow. Doctors love life and despise death. We minister in healing, but sometimes the healing we seek does not occur on this side of heaven. Sometimes healing comes on God’s terms, and those terms may not align with our desires. It’s during these times that hope becomes an anchor needed to stabilize the shaking of the soul.

His soul was already reverberating in the pain of letting go. Wife, soul-mate, lover, friend; everything she once was being stripped away one layer at a time. An unpeeling of a life in the midst of disease. He saw me as I entered the waiting room and sank into the nearest seat. I anchored my body to the chair beside him and anchored my soul in the hope found only in Christ. His beloved may not make it out of this hospital, but his hope could. As their doctor and friend, my role is to walk with them on their healing journey. Today, the Rx is hope.

Hope holds on to the belief that a positive outcome is possible. It does not focus on the circumstances leading to a need for hope, but rather it focuses on the good yet to be found. Hope gleans its strength from the beauty yet hidden in the ashes. It lays waiting, anticipating and expectant. It falls upon the hurting like dew on a petal. It softly lands on the delicate and brings refreshing and healing.

Hope is one of the most important things I can give those I counsel. Whether it’s a 40-year-old mom I’ve just given a cancer diagnosis or a 70-year-old woman who has just lost the love of her life, hope is the universal prescription. It is not the false promise of a cancer-free diagnosis, a miraculous healing, or delusions of the deceased returning, but an internal empowerment to cleave to life and hold on to your belief in a good God even when you are not currently experiencing goodness.

Hope heals from the inside out. It energizes the spirit to draw near to God, which then feeds peace to the mind and brings relaxation to the body. Hope is healing.