In HOPE

  In HOPE 8.30 

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David Timms  

 


Prayer for Today

Father, lift my eyes beyond my own struggles, fears, and pain. When I cry out for Your intervention and healing, keep me from bitterness when You answer "Draw back." And through my tears, help me see Your hand at work through me. Ignite within me the confidence that as I share the sufferings of Christ I will also share the power of His resurrection. Once more I surrender my brokenness rather than resent it. Guide me through this valley and glorify Christ through me. Amen.

Hope Happenings

A group of eleven students from Hope traveled to Europe this summer from May 16 - June 1 as part of an overseas study program. Students traveled through Europe, visiting France, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

Katie Bond, Director of Student Activities and Study Abroad supervised the experience. She initiated the program last year to encourage cross-cultural experiences for college students.

Hope International University
Fullerton  CA  92831

 

"Now in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate is a pool called Bethesda which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie -- the blind, the lame, the paralyzed -- and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had."
(John 5:2-4; late manuscripts)


Troubled Waters

In Abba's Child , Brennan Manning uses a powerful illustration that deserves repetition here.

Thornton Wilder's one-act play, "The Angel That Troubled the Waters" (1928), based on John 5:1-4, dramatizes the power of the pool of Bethesda to heal whenever an angel stirred its waters. A physician comes periodically to the pool hoping to be the first in line and longing to be healed of his melancholy. The angel finally appears but blocks the physician just as he is ready to step into the water. The angel tells the physician to draw back, for this moment is not for him. The physician pleads for help in a broken voice, but the angel insists that healing is not intended for him.

The dialogue continues -- and then comes the prophetic word from the angel: "Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love's service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back."

Later, the man who enters the pool first and is healed rejoices in his good fortune and turning to the physician says: "Please come with me. It is only an hour to my home. My son is lost in dark thoughts. I do not understand him and only you have ever lifted his mood. Only an hour.... There is also my daughter: since her child died, she sits in the shadow. She will not listen to us but she will listen to you."

As we pray for healing and yearn to be first into "the troubled waters" may we grow aware of those in the shadows to whom the Father may send us. Ultimately, in a broken world our healing is less helpful than our woundedness. Our pain, in His hands, can "tremble into the hearts of men and women" and, miraculously, become a balm.

Our grief, pain, brokenness, and sorrow all have healing power in the hands of the real Physician.

In HOPE --

David

 

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You can find back issues of "In HOPE" (2005-2008) at http://www.hiu.edu/inhope/.

David Timms serves in the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. "In HOPE", however, is not an official publication of the University and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Administrators or Board. "In HOPE" has been a regular e-publication since January, 2001.