Voices: God’s call to get well and help others

A wise friend recently wrote: “I never understood what it meant to need to get well in order to help others until I began to get well myself.”

God calls ordinary people to extraordinary tasks. Often, those ordinary people have to work through personal and family difficulties along the way.

God’s call is a wonder and never a burden, but figuring out how God will work and when can keep us up at night and keep us close to him in prayer. God’s call is not to “figure it out,” though, but to watch for opportunity.

“Watch what God is doing and join him,” we learned from Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God.

God’s call challenges us to grow in knowledge and heal emotionally and spiritually, so we can be used in his work. We want to be a fit vessel, a sharp tool for God’s use in ministry.

Are we all called? Yes. If we have received Jesus, we are called.

Our healing paths and resulting ministries differ, but there is a brotherhood among those who have suffered and survived. We become missionaries, driven perhaps by transformed pain.

When I (Ruth) was a young woman in seminary, I felt the call to counsel people with mental health needs, only to find with my paralyzing anxiety attacks, I was a person needing help. God sent that help to me from several directions, as he will do for you if you find yourself in this same place.

Facing the holidays and family

We are flesh and blood creatures subject to nature and seasonal change. In this fallen world, we also are affected by sin.

Winter and the Christmas season can be a difficult time for folks with psychological issues, as sunlight has lessened in the fall and winter at the very time we are expected to feel “the holiday spirit” but maybe can’t.

Holidays are a time for family memories, and not all memories feel good. Not all memories are good. If you are suffering, talking things out—more than once—with a trusted friend, pastor or counselor helps.

Talking with siblings and extended family and processing some of our childhood feelings and fears has led us and others to resolve past issues, as well. Family may be able to help you more than you think they can. As we have grown over time, so have they. They may now have awareness or information we lack.

Insight into family dynamics and key personalities within the family that molded us as children can aid cognitive change and healthier thought patterns. Family relationships, if not abusive, are worth restoration. Respect and healthy boundaries, not alienation, should be our goal.

Christmas’ spiritual light to our souls

While the holiday season may hold personal, family and financial challenges, Christmas is healing to the mind and spirit.

We are brought together as the church, employee groups, clubs and families for the celebration of Christ, the Messiah. We are healed in fellowship groups by love and close companionship and by the powerful message of Christmas itself.

Christmas teaches:

• While many promises in life may have been broken, the promise of Jesus came true.
• While we have had times of darkness, the angels brought light in the night sky. This world does hold light.
• While we get old and sick and see our friends die, a perfect newborn breathed in the stable.
• While we feel lost more than we want to admit, full salvation has found us.

Jesus not only changes everything, but he makes up for all sadness.

He is joy unspeakable to every person, no matter their health status.

Whether we make this testimony known in person or through media, may the Messiah Christ be proclaimed by the called from open hearts healed by him.

Joe Cook is a counseling professor at Liberty University. Ruth Cook is a cancer survivor. The views expressed are those of the authors.