“THE TREATMENT OF A WOUND”

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wound~ noun1. A bodily injury caused by a cut, blow, or other impact.2. An injury to a person's feelings or reputation. ~ verb1. Inflict a wound on.2. Injure (a person's feelings).

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I have always been fascinated by the medical profession.

I know that sounds a little odd, especially coming from someone who has relied and trusted in the Lord all his life for the healing of his body.I have not and will not make a doctrine or even a dogma out of it; because it is a relational thing.I have simply trusted the Lord and He has come through for my family and I every time.As far as I can remember, my family and I have never had a prescribed narcotic invasion of our body.God has been so good to us. We have been at deaths door many times but the Lord has come through for us every time.One man said it this way; “One side of the coin is faith; I have faith that the Lord will do a miracle for me.”“The other side of the coin is trust and is not to be confused with faith.”“Trust says that even if I don’t get the miracle that I am believing for, I am at His disposal.”“I trust Him!”

With all that said, I think you can concur that it is strange indeed for me to say that I have always been fascinated by the medical profession.I am awed by Doctors and Nurses alike.Now I wouldn’t presume to know what you are thinking, but maybe you are thinking that I was fascinated by all the technology, needles, machinery, artificial apparatus and etc., but that wasn’t it at all.Rather, it has always been the drive of the physician and his aides to try every way that they can to affect a cure, assist in healing, and bring mending to a wounded or diseased body.

I have been raised around the medical profession all of my life.The memory of doctors coming out of operating arenas and surgery with fatigue on their features, and a tired slump to their postures is common to me.Most times through the tiredness and fatigue you would see a look of satisfaction and thankfulness that a job had been well done and that all had gone well.I have observed them a many a time to turn from giving the family a good report, after hours of grueling and intense surgery, and just answer another call to another operating arena.

I know that the media has been so intently aware of malpractice and the such like over the last few years; and I would be the last to say that the profession has been without its bad moments:Yet the drive of the old time practitioner and his love for people and his single-minded mentality concerning the well-being of his patients still attracts me.

I love the personality of the healer.There is just something intense about their obvious need to mend and heal.They are the kind of take charge people that when someone is in need, they are quick to move in, assess the situation, put lesser issues aside and focus on what is necessary for the healing of the victim.

I don’t have my head buried in the sand.I know there are those who are in it for the money alone.But by and large they are in the minority, in my opinion.Most are caring and compassionate people who will go the extra mile and then some in order to facilitate healing in a patient or victim.

So, at the risk of being redundant, I want to say that it’s not all the wonderful things that the doctors can do, nor the state of the art equipment at their disposal, but it is their tireless and tenacious determination to beat the enemy of disease and suffering even to the detriment and sacrifice of their own health.

That kind of spirit is the thing that has driven me all through my formative years of development and still impacts me now.I am speaking of the cause consciousness of a man driven by the need to affect help and healing for the hurting, not the career conscious prima dona who schedules his obstetrics around his tee off times.

I want to affirm here and now at the outset of this article, that no matter the origin of the wound, disease or malady in the body being treated, the level of compassion should be just as intense, and the drive to impact healing in that body should be at the peak of our ability and feelings.

The Idealist

Idealist: One who practices the forming of, or pursuing ideals, especially unrealistically.

I have been called an idealist by some.I may be somewhat of a romantic,(characterized by, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality.)But I still am moved by the principles that initially drive the medical profession.Many a young boy or girl, dewy-eyed with dreams of being a healer, watched the doctor as he made his rounds, talked to his patients, bring hope and cheer to the distressed, depressed and sick.The boy and girl, so full of ambition to see the healing touch delivered one day by their hand and administration, follow the doctor around like little puppy dogs, anticipating his every word and hoping for a word of encouragement to send them on their way to their dreams.

I have watched those same boys and girls, later on, with full degrees after their names, signifying that they were indeed licensed members of the medical profession, become disenchanted with their profession and their cause deteriorated into a career, and just became a job.

What happens to that idealism?What happens to those dreams?What happened to the drive and determination to see the sick healed?What happened to the personal touch and the involvement with the patient?What happened to these vital ingredients that tell the difference between a good doctor, and one driven by excellence and a cause?Where has the cynicism come from?From whence cometh the detachment and aloofness?

Maybe I can cast a little illumination on the subject.

I realize that we live in a generation whose population has burgeoned, to say the least.The days in which the doctor only had a few patients to look after are long gone.So I realize that change is inevitable, that one doctor will not be able to spend the time with the patient that he would have in times past.I think that society, with it’s lawsuit-happy mentality, has helped to foster some of the problems that the medical profession is having today.A doctor has to be so aware of the chances of malpractice, and so this, of course, modifies his approach to people and his profession.

Another vital thing that has happened is that the doctor’s profession is now ran using doctors that no longer practice medicine and are really no longer qualified and up to date in their field.They have become the administration of institutions that were designed to be operated by and for the cause of healing.Now it is no longer healing that is the bottom line, it is profit that has taken the place of healing.

You can’t even get in most hospitals today without insurance that guarantees payment.To get into hospitals that are allegedly the “good” institutions where “excellent” care is taken of the patient, then you either have to be rich, or have iron clad insurance.It has become a money game.

All others are relegated to the clinics, charity hospitals, and etcetera.

Without me going any further, I think you have gotten the picture.There are some things that have been lost in the shuffle of time and change that were invaluable to us.

I know you think I am giving an expose on the medical profession, but what I am doing is far deeper than that.I am addressing the fact, that though time and it’s complications have brought change, there are some things that should never change, and that is our compassion, drive, and need to heal, the hurting, wounded, and diseased.

Follow me as I make some quantum leaps back and forth from the ministry to the medical profession, and back again!

I have some questions to begin with.

Does the origin of a wound, determine how it is treated, the amount of compassion, and the level of tenderness in the treatment of the same?

It used to be that it did not matter from where a wound originated, it was treated with compassion and the same driven determination to heal.It is a little different today. We live in the day of HIV, AIDS, and the such like.Gone are the days when you just dove in and tried to save someone with no thought of yourself.Today, when dealing with blood and internal body fluids, you had better have some protection.All of that is well and good.We need not be reckless and uncaring of our own health in trying to save someone else.But, with the advent of all these complications involving the profession, there has come a different attitude concerning healing.It is almost as if there is a “You made your bed, now sleep in it,” kind of attitude that prevails.

Many years ago in the state in which I was raised, there was a young man that injured himself; he had lacerated himself deeply and was bleeding profusely.The injury came as a result of a fighting and mixing drinking and narcotics.He had to be subdued in order to be treated.He fought the ambulance attendants all the way to the emergency room and when they rolled him in to see the doctor, the doctor took one look at him, saw him still fighting and cursing, and said, “Just roll him on out in the ditch and let him die.”“I’m not going to waste my time trying to save someone that I have to fight to heal.”The doctor didn’t really mean that, and was using a little psychology on the young man.The young man settled right down, and allowed himself to be treated.

I know that in that situation the doctor was using wisdom in order to facilitate the opportunity to be involved in the young man’s healing.But I am seeing that same kind of mentality in people today, that really don’t care if someone is healed or not.

If we are not careful today, and I am not just charging the medical profession, but I am charging the church and in particular, the ministry, we are going to let the origin of a wound determine how we treat said individual, the compassion shown, and the level of tenderness in treatment and recovery!

We live in an age of change and diversity.Absolutes are not absolute any longer.The least thing we can do is to remain constant and unswerving in our compassion for the lost, the wounded, and the hurting.There cannot be any mutation from the purity of our desire to restore and reconcile!

I have another pertinent question.

Does charity treatment, (spiritual or literal), determine the quality of care given or concern shown today?Just take a look in the emergency rooms of charity hospitals today, and it is little wonder that some actually die waiting for treatment.There are a lot of variables that contribute to that scenario, but there is usually a lower level of treatment given in such cases.The same is true of a lot of Veteran’s hospitals.The bottom line, (profit), has determined the level of treatment that a patient gets in said institutions.

It may be true that in the natural, and somewhat in the spiritual, that you get what you pay for; but does that attitude belong within the ranks of those who are supposed to be healers?

Power Inherent By Healing

I think that before going any further, we need to address an area concerning power and authority that is birthed in the arena of healing.There is a certain aura, for lack of a better word, that accompanies the healer.It is a certain bearing, attitude, or demeanor of power and authority.When you deal in the lives of the hurting, diseased and wounded, it is possible to become arrogant as concerns the authority of the realm of healing.It is possible that we forget who it is that really does the healing, and that we are just servants to carry out His bidding.Somewhere down the line, we have tended to respond to the handclapping and admiring of the public that we minister to, as if we really deserve it, and have earned it.In all of the making of decisions that go along with healing, I think that we need to be reminded of what Jesus would do or say in any given situation, and to act within the boundaries of that compassionate touch.

Just by virtue of desiring and receiving the ministry of healing, and flowing in that dimension, there is a certain amount of authority that goes with the realm; that we need to beware taking a wrong role in our life.

For example, sometimes there are wounds or disease that involve contagion, and there are factors that come into play concerning isolation of the victim or patient.I think that it is easy here to factor in the parallel to the ministry and understand that it is an easy thing to misuse the power to make such decisions as requiring spiritual isolation and quarantine.I think that only a Christ-like person should be able to make these kind of decisions.

There have been entirely too many decision involving perpetual and seeming eternal isolation, non-fellowship, and ostracism of people because of reasons other than the initial wound or problem that needed to be treated in the first place.It has been undue exercise of power and influence, political maneuvering and positioning.There has been little or no restoration or reconciliation involved.

I know that there are serious situations that call for measured response in healing and restoration.These things cannot take place overnight.It would be foolish and selfish of an individual to think that they could just repent and get right back into their former position right away.There has been trust broken that must be restored.There has been a breach of faith that must be mended.

I know that there are times for individual retreat and self-imposed isolation for the purpose of sabbaticals and such, but where I cannot and will not go, is the area where the ministry isolates and ostracizes and individual as being beyond repentance, or at the very least, they believe he or she can repent, but not here!They believe that the offenders can be restored, but not here.It’s another case of N.I.M.B.Y. (Not in my back yard!)

Only if you are willing to die for me, should you be able to administer the kind of radical surgery that some maladies require.If you should have to recommend isolation because of spiritual contagion, then you need to beware of the rush of power that is involved in that kind of decision.

Somewhere, somebody has to make a decision whether a malady, (spiritual), is curable.And that brings into play awesome responsibility to make such decisions.We have to be careful that our own predispositions concerning some lifestyles, trends or the such like, do not make our decision for us instead of compassion for the victim in the problem.

If we do consider the malady curable, as we should, then we then need to address another question.If it is then curable, and restorable, then do I want to heal?Do I want to restore?

There has recently been such a rash of debate over controversial issues involving restoration, i.e., whether or not a person can be restored.Ladies and Gentlemen, we are getting the cart before the horse.The question that should be debated is this:“Why don’t we WANT to restore?”When we get to the bottom of that question, we will have been well on the way to recovery.

We fit into biblical times all right!When they were sick in those days, by and large people believed that someone had sinned or they wouldn’t be sick.There was a certain embarrassment involved, and so they hid their sick away.I think that we in a sense are like that.We have fostered a movement that does not have anyone to really turn to and communicate with.We are fearful that the deepest, darkest secrets of our hearts, and the problems that we long to be delivered from, will be shouted from the housetops and revealed to everyone.We are running scared.We are operating on a dysfunctional failure of a system, that when there are people that fail and fall, all we know is to run and hide, take the high ground, and run for cover, lest we get “tarred” by the same brush.We think that hierarchical accountability is going to encourage people to talk about their problems, when the reality is that we need relational accountability, from people that we trust.Restoration is not a pretty business, and we need friends that love us, and love God, and don’t mind the stigma of being involved with someone who has failed and wants to do whatever it takes to be restored.

I have one more point about protracted isolation, and that is this:isolation from the people of God and the church, produces anger and bitterness, and not anything positive.Ladies and Gentlemen, it is the church that strengthens us, comforts us, and restores us.The last thing in the world that a person needs that has failed, (either intentionally as in a mode of self-destruct, or unintentionally getting involved in something), is to isolate them from the church and their brothers and sisters.Family is a integral and inseparable part of restoration and reconciliation in the Body of Christ.No fellowship, no restoration!No embracing, no reconciliation!

Gal 6:1-3

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

This scripture is self explanatory.First of all it is talking to the church and not a sinner.It addresses itself to “Brethren” and not the heathen.Secondly, it talks about a man that has been “overtaken,” not just chased or tempted.Third, it describes the problem as a “fault,” which can be an inadvertent error, but the original language describes it as a moral failure.Fourth, it further delineates whose responsibility it is for restoration, “ye which are spiritual!”This let’s out the heathen right here, and also for you that leave all the restoration up to God, it lets you out too.It is the Church’s responsibility to restore.Not to question whether he can be or not!If there is godly repentance then you are in the awesome position of determining whether or not the Blood of Jesus Christ can cover it.My prayers are with you, my friend!You are in an unenviable position!I hope you are brave enough to make the right decision.Notice that I said, “brave” enough not “hard-nosed” enough!If you err, be courageous enough to err on the side of mercy and opt for the blood covering of Jesus Christ.

Then, fifth, it tells us the quality of spiritual restoration;it said to restore such an one, “in a spirit of meekness” and then describes the type of meekness and humility that we are to restore with.It said to do so, “…considering thyself, lest thour also be tempted.”The original language said of this phrase, “to literally take aim at yourself as if you were the one that had fallen into a fault and wanted to be restored.”Ladies and gentlemen, empathy is part and parcel of the restoration process.You cannot hold yourself aloof and separate from the victim or offender and expect to work the process of reconciliation.

The next two verses explain the very intent of verse one.“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”Putting yourself and your own needs first in the equation of restoration, makes said restoration impossible and negates the very nature of Jesus Christ that is supposed to be exemplified and manifested in us.

Fear Driven ~ Insecurity Motivated

What factor is fear and insecurity playing in the attitude and approach of the healer, in making decisions concerning restoration or isolation?What are we afraid of, really?Are we too willing to segregate, excommunicate and isolate people because of fear of some alleged contagion, or is it because we don’t want to be bothered with restoration and the work and stigma involved?

I wonder if the reason that we resist restoration, is because we can imagine someone sitting on our pews, restored from some failure, forever reminding us of our own covered up and carefully disguised failures and propensities? Especially if it was one of your close friends and you were forever reminded of his good grace in not revealing your part in his failure.Your unsanctified communications that inadvertently fed his spirit.No sir, you didn’t fall, he did.But you sir compound the error by resisting his restoration on the carefully spiritually disguised premise of fear and insecurity.

You may say, “I forgive him but trust cannot just be restored.”I agree.But your forgiveness of him does nothing for him, it sets you free, not him!Your restored trust in him will set him free!I know that takes time, but it is necessary for reconciliation, and insecure, fear driven people, afraid of what the fellowship is going to say, are not the kind of people that can facilitate this kind of mending!

Church, there is a unending diversity in the origins of wounds.There are accidental wounds, self inflicted wounds, and wounds deriving from assault, but while the list is unending as it concerns the origin of a wound, the constant has got to always be, mercy and compassion, restoration and reconciliation.That is the ministry that God commissioned to the Church!Whatever it takes to reconcile the body, individually and constituently, to Jesus Christ and his purpose for the Church in the earth!

You are saying, “It just don’t work that way preacher.”“Maybe if this were a utopian society, it would work.”“Take a reality check Breachmender!”

Excuse me while I still have idealisms stars in my eyes. Pardon me while I still believe in the Blood of Jesus to cover past, present, and future sins.If He is omnipresent, and I know that He is, then that means that He is in my past, like He is presently in my present, and He is also in my future!Everywhere present includes time and eternity also!

Humor the romantic in me, that in your eyes is unrealistic, while I still maintain hope for the hopeless, restoration for the destitute, reconciliation for what the Church has deemed irreconcilable, and a Church that begins to once again resemble a spiritual ICU, and the ministry endowed with a calling and a cause, not the embittered man who is embattled with just getting and gaining!May the light of God’s compassion shine through His Church, that their eyes would still be dewy with the dreams of restoring people to their original purposes!May the ministry get another grip on the spiritual “Hippocratic Oath” and cease to be affected by the “bottom line”profit, and be affected by the ministry of reconciliation and healing.

May the healers mentality and attitude grip us all.It’s not about Mercedes, Jaguar’s and Lincolns; it’s not about fine mansions, mega-churches, and posturing for the public eye; it’s about souls that are hurting, and victims that need mending from trauma and wounds; it’s about the forgotten Apostolic Prisoner’s of War, APOW’s if you please, that we need to get out of their prisons and restore them to ministries, albeit scarred and manifesting the past ravages of sin.

God is going to do a great work in these days of revival, and He is going to do a new thing through flawed vessels who have an appreciative understanding of the Grace, Mercy, and favor of God!

Submitted by,

“The Breachmender”

Dr. John R. Crist

“A Servant Among Equals”