A Blessed Little Thought

The Dean of Trinity Episcopal School For Ministry encourages the faculty to begin all classes and meetings with what he calls a BLT or a blessed little thought. This is a short meditaiton on a verse of the Bible. Here is a BLT that I shared recently.

The text is II Corinthians 12:7 and following. It is the place where Paul is speaking about his spiritual experience and then says, “but a thorn in the flesh was given me that I might not become too elated.” Three times he besought the Lord that this thorn might be taken away. The answer he got was that “my grace is sufficient for you.” “My power is made perfect in weakness.”

I have been thinking about this text and about the reality of chronic illness. The thought I want to share is tenative, more of a question, might it be so? First I want to affirm that I believe strongly in healing prayer. I believe that the creation is a fallen creation and that sickness is not part of God’s plan of creation and that healing is part of His plan of redemption. When we pray for healing we can have confidence that we are praying for “thy will to be done on earth as in heaven.” Illness and sickness are not part of God’s direct intention for us but there is what Luther called the mysterious left handed work of God. That which God allows. God allows many people to suffer with chronic illness.

The rest-excellent!