We Have the Power to Heal One Another | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: We Have the Power to Heal One Another | Previous Challenge Entry
By Agatha Mangwende
02/12/18
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When we were growing up and living in the village where my father was employed as an Agriculture Extension Officer, our home was situated very near a shopping complex which also housed a beer garden. As many Saturdays as I could remember, there was a brawl at the end of the day.

Patrons would be drunk and it was the time to settle scores or ask for the return of borrowed money. Either way, it always ended up with two bloodied men lying on the dirt road waiting for a friend or relative to drag them back home. Even the village police officers were tired of these brawls. The fights were usually among the usual crowd, drinking buddies during the day and slaughtering buddies by the evening. I wondered why they drank at all!

Growing up with that picture in my mind made me hate any strife of any kind. If I could not help solve the conflict, I would choose to walk away, rather than stand there and watch two people shouting, molesting or punching each other. By the grace of God, our parents taught us never to fight, either verbally or physically. “You can never take back your words or your actions, so it is better to control them”, my mother used to say.

My mother herself is a very soft-spoken woman but her softness was never to be misunderstood for weakness. She had a positive way of disciplining us and keeping us respectful of one another. Her softness and strength rubbed itself on me too and I managed to raise two wonderful young men.

Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, there is so much strife. People have piled up inner baggage from the time a parent hit their head against the door to the latest one zillionth nasty conversation they have had with an employer, colleague, church deacon or spouse. By the time you meet with them during the course of your day, they are ready to explode!

Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

But I believe in a solution to strife. God has given us the power to heal one another. By a mere touch, a good word, a smile, a hug, we can reach out to brokenness and bring healing to one another’s lives. It sounds like it is so little to give, yet it is what is mostly missing in our conversations and interactions with one another. We would travel miles to go to that person we know will listen, hear our pain and heal us with the right words or with just a hug.

I once read an article in a magazine saying that, ‘A young man jumped into the bus and the moment he was in, started to harass other passengers with his abusive shouting and cussing. The driver threatened to drop him off and was told to shut up or face being punched in the face. An elderly lady then did the unthinkable – she got up from her seat, walked carefully to the young man and put her hand on the young man’s shoulder and quietly said, “Son, it is okay”. Those few little words were enough to bring the aggressive young man to his knees sobbing and narrating how life had been so difficult for him’.

All this young person needed was a healing touch from a loving hand. Sometimes we can touch a snake and be bitten, that can happen. Yes, the hand may have bitten scars, but it does heal and it is still useful, and we must continue to extend it; for that is what God would expect us to do. Ours is to heal and not to reject them even more.

Let us not assume to have a sensitivity and righteousness that supersedes that of our Lord Jesus Christ. At his hour of great need, Peter rejected him three times, repeatedly saying, “No, I do not know that man you are saying I do”. But when they later met again, Jesus was there with some breakfast to share. John 18 & 21.
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:21

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