HEALED: Searching For Peace and Finding Jesus

To heal means to become healthy again, to alleviate one’s distress or anguish. To become healthy “again” implies that we were once healthy but are not now. We all started as newborns – helpless, pure as snow, and just as God intended – but it doesn’t take long before the brokenness of the world leaves its mark on each of us. As we venture into our middle years, we’ve been around long enough that we’ve loved, maybe we’ve lost, we’ve probably ticked off a few boxes and amassed some solid memories. But…we’ve been lugging around some variant of emotional baggage and frankly, we’re tired. Wouldn’t it be nice to put it down for a while or maybe forever?

When I look at pictures from childhood, I wouldn’t have characterized our family dynamic as particularly unhealthy at the time. Of course, my dad always had a Pabst Blue Ribbon in his hand but how was I to know that wasn’t standard practice for fatherhood? And, true, there was more disorder than predictability but this was my first experience with childhood and I had nothing to compare it to. In my 40s, I had amassed enough experience and wisdom to recognize that I was repeating many of the behaviors I witnessed as a child. I wasn’t equipped to articulate my feelings and had no outlet for processing my emotions. Despite my best efforts to avoid these behaviors, I felt powerless to stop them. My reactions were conditioned, automatic, and mimicked what I witnessed in childhood. I wanted to get off the roller coaster but didn’t know how.

My healing journey began as a desperate attempt to make the second half of my life more peaceful and rewarding than the first. It started with books, then podcasts and YouTube interviews. I tried to educate myself about the nervous system and how the body stores and manifests trauma. Every scientific or alternative modality was considered, and I approached my path forward from every angle, no matter how absurd it seemed. My faith was also maturing during this time, but I didn’t view my spiritual growth as an agent of healing. In my mind, the two were very different matters. One was science and the other was…well, faith. It turns out I had a lot to learn about the restorative nature of God’s love. While it didn’t initially occur to me that prayer, trust in the Lord’s provision, and a growing intimacy with my Heavenly Father could provide the foundation for complete and lasting healing, they became the backbone of my progress.

People don’t give God enough credit for the emotional healing he is capable of. Most of us have heard of the big miracles – parting the Red Sea, raising people from the dead and restoring physical health to the blind, lame and sick – but we don’t talk openly about the restoration of hearts and the healing of emotional wounds the Lord can and will heal if we only let Him. We talk about the visible miracles that can be witnessed with our eyes, but we don’t give God credit for the painstaking task of reshaping someone’s heart and internal dialogue.

So is it HEALED or HE LED? It's both. Christ was at the center of my healing journey and this is my feeble attempt to thank Him for partnering with me in the restoration. I pray this book inspires you to embark on your journey with Him towards redemption, salvation, and eternal peace.