In the eighth chapter of Luke we read about a woman who suffered physically with a bleeding condition for twelve years. She also suffered mental and emotional anguish during those years because her illness caused her to be ceremonially unclean – an outcast from Jewish society. She set out on a mission to find Jesus for healing. When she finally found Him she must have worked her way through the crowd saying, “Unclean” as people quickly moved away from her allowing her to finally reach Jesus. She reached out and touched the hem of his garment. Immediately she was healed and the bleeding stopped. Jesus asked who touched him and his disciples said in that dense crowd it could have been anyone. Jesus told them, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” The woman fell to her knees at the feet of Jesus and explained for all to hear the reason she had touched His garment and then testified about her miraculous healing. Jesus told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” We don’t know her name or where she was from, but her deliberate act of faith is recorded as an example for all generations.
I relate to that woman on more than one level. I have known physical, mental and emotional pain and felt the relief she experienced. When my wife of 50 years died, I found myself in a dark place mentally and emotionally. I was suffering physically from chronic sciatic nerve pain constantly shooting down both legs as well. I had been a believer for six decades and I never before felt so isolated and alone. I held a memorial service for Carol at Christian Life Center and began attending CLC regularly. After spending my first Thanksgiving and Christmas alone I felt lost and without purpose. On December 28th, 2014, Sam Hamstra and his wife Taylor (Campus pastors at the CLC Hammond, Indiana, campus) preached about David hiding in a dark cave with 300 misfits. I thought to myself, “I’m in that dark cave but with only my two dogs for company.” Then Sam stated boldly, “If you are alive, God is not done with you yet.” That statement caused my heart to leap with joy and it stirred the Holy Spirit within me once again. I felt assured God has a new purpose for my life and I became deliberate in my search to find it.
Life Groups were starting up again at CLC and a friend from the noon service invited me to a men’s group that would be meeting Wednesday evenings. I approached that first meeting with great expectation that God would finally reveal His new purpose for my life. Instead, He had a surprise planned for me. After the opening prayer the leader asked for prayer requests. I asked for prayers for relief from my chronic sciatic nerve pain. Several men laid hands on me and prayed in the name of Jesus for an end to my suffering. I felt no different as I drove home that night, but I awoke the next morning without sciatic pain for the first time in eight years and I am still pain free more than two years later. I have arthritis in my knees, but the pain is so much less it still amazes me.
As for my new purpose, Sam and Taylor were greatly encouraged by my emails thanking them and describing how their message blessed me and brought me out of my cave. I then realized that God wants to use me to encourage other believers. I shared with Sam and Taylor an article I had written. I then began to share weekly emails with all of our pastors and my friends at CLC, attaching a new article each week. The emails were titled “From the old man in the back of the sanctuary” and my Christian family encouraged me to start this blog. I post twice each week and praise God that it continues to attract visitors. I pray that each of you reading this will find encouragement in the words God has given me to share with you.
When we are desperate in our search for Jesus; when we deliberately reach out and touch Him by faith: amazing things still happen.