Only recently did I learn that this man was healed by God.
Harrison was no longer working at Being Alive, he had put in his notice and
this man was taking over a part of his job. I walked in the door and he called
me the healer man or something like that. I was confused and put back because I
didn’t really realize what God had done for him.
My mind went back to when I had first met him as I was
trying to figure out what God did for him. It was several months prior where I met
this man. He had lost his good friend/partner and now he had lost his cat (you
should know that animals are definitely people’s family here in Hillcrest). In
the midst of all this, his ankle was in a lot of pain because of a severe
strain that he had incurred while he was volunteering at Being Alive’s rummage
sale. It was a definite low in his life. So, I felt the nudge and took a risk.
As I waited on the Lord, I felt like God gave me the words: “I know his name.”
I told him that God knew his name and I prayed in the name of Jesus for him and
his ankle. He wept but nothing seemed to happen. He was thankful and I thanked
him for letting me pray for him and went on my way.
Moving forward to the moment where I encountered him as a
man with a functioning ankle who was acknowledging to me that he had help from
someone outside of himself. I started to ask questions, half doubting and half
excited for God’s touch (i.e. a little faith, a little doubt—seemingly my normal
routine). I started to see God really did touch him and even he didn’t doubt
that it was something, someone other than his medicine or physical therapist.
Something great had to have happened because his foot had slipped into a
sprinkler hole, got stuck and ripped one of his tendons (or something) in the
process. He was telling me how amazed he was as he was pacing back and forth
preparing for the food pantry that Being Alive would host the following week. As
he thanked me, I proclaimed to him God’s love for him and that Jesus healed
him, but he didn’t seem to be too mindful of that or interested in studying the
Bible with me after I tried to invite him to that day. It was no doubt that he
was touched by God, in his mind and my mind, the problem for him was that he
couldn’t point to any one God because he wasn’t and isn’t very interested in
organized religion but bits and pieces of things he likes from all religions.
So, I walked away thinking of the ten healed leper story, where
9/10 of them didn’t come back to thank Jesus but then I went back to meet him
another day. I realized there was a potential that God healing him might’ve
opened his heart to more spiritual conversations. So the next day, I went back
and learned about his lack of a desire to be involved in “organized religion”
and that whenever he heard of judgment or condemnation, he would walk away from
that teaching. Taking the risk and the opportunity of an open heart, I began to
tell him that even God’s judgment is good news and I even tried to tell him why.
Surprisingly, he was receptive and didn’t shun me from talking about Jesus more
with him and the story of humanity walking away from God, though no clear
decision to follow Him was made. I can’t help to think that God planted some
sort of seed through me into his heart and the open door was through God’s
finger touching his deep need.
Jesus already went to the extreme to demonstrate the love of
God to broken and wandering humanity (Romans 5:8), and it is more and more
clear to me that God WANTS to show up in miraculous ways in the lives of LGBT
people. In fact, He is!
The end is near, “the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of
God is near. [we are to] repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). How
much more is this true around 2000 years after Jesus first stated this? This blog
post, in a way, is a call to realize that God wants LGBT people to know Him, to
see the nearness of His coming Kingdom as good news. It is true, that there are
many LGBT (and straight or greedy or proud people), here in Hillcrest, who
should have some fear of the coming Kingdom because sin will be judged by Holy
Jesus, the Savior King. At the same time and even more beautiful than judgment
of humanity, is the fact that in Jesus, judgment is overcome by mercy and there
is an opportunity for a new and beautiful identity. This is the good news that I
have found hope in. God is leading our group to declare to LGBT people that
there is opportunity for mercy triumphing over judgment and to be given a new
identity. Furthermore, stories like this man’s story remind me that He will CONFIRM
the good news of the nearness of His Kingdom. He is hungry for this declaration
to be made and He gives power in its declaration (Luke 10: 9).
