{"id":1239,"date":"2013-02-02T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T06:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2017-05-30T20:12:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T00:12:16","slug":"the-healing-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-healing-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The Healing Road","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n Jesus Meets Veronica<\/em>, by Michael D. O’Brien<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

IT<\/strong> was a noisy hotel. I was eating some lousy take-out, watching some lousy television. So, I turned it off, set the food outside my door, and sat on my bed. I began thinking about a broken-hearted mother I prayed with after my concert the night before…<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

GRIEF<\/p>\n

Her 18 year old daughter had recently passed away, and this mother stood before me in utter despair. Before she died, her daughter had underlined words in her bible from the book of Jeremiah:<\/p>\n

\n

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. (29:11)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“What did these words mean when my daughter’s future was suddenly snatched from her?” she pleaded. “Why did she feel drawn to underline those<\/em> words?” Without even thinking, the following words passed through my lips: “Because those words were underlined for you<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

She fell to the floor sobbing; it was a powerful moment, a moment of hope, as I knelt and wept with her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE WAY OF HOPE<\/p>\n

The memory of that experience suddenly opened up the Scriptures for me. I began to see how we can find grace and healing of the wound that the death of a loved one can cause (or another deep sorrow); it can be found a<\/em>long the road through Golgotha.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus had to suffer. He had to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But it was not only to offer the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood for our sins, but to\u00a0show us a way, <\/em>the Way to healing. <\/em>What this means is that, by following Jesus’ example of docility and abandonment to the Father’s will when it means a crucifixion of the heart in some manner, it will consequently lead to a death of our old self and<\/em> to a resurrection of the True Self, the one made in His image. This is what it means when Peter writes, “By His wounds you have been healed<\/em>” [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. 1 Pet 2:24<\/span><\/span>