A hospital for the soul
by Maria Rudolph
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He sent forth his word and healed them, he rescued them from the grave (Psalm 107:20).
I recently had a big medical procedure done. I was in hospital numerous times, and I needed bed rest to recover. For weeks, I wasn’t able to take part in normal life. All outings in the car (that I couldn’t even drive myself) were trips back to the hospital or to see some kind of doctor. Finally, I was able to go on my first non-medical outing. It was Ash Wednesday and a friend took me to church for a special service. I sat there, breathing in the holy space after weeks in bed, after staring at ceilings in hospitals and at home. It suddenly struck me: on this outing, too, I had actually come to a hospital. The church is like a hospital, a place of healing for the soul. After weeks of living so outside of the norm, my innermost being was yearning for the sacredness of the word spoken, prayed and sung by a group of Christians in church. It enveloped me with peace.
The psalms are so raw; the psalmists captured human struggles and emotions so well. Today’s psalm describes a parched soul who hungers and thirsts for the Lord after straying from God’s path. But as soon as they are ready to turn back to God, there he is. He is like a well-watered garden, like a spring that never stops, filling them up and healing them instantly.
We might not experience the healing hand of God in a physical sense, although that can also happen to some. But absolutely every single one of us will experience the refreshment the Lord brings our weary souls when we are parched and open ourselves up to God.
What does that mean for where you are at in your own life at this moment? Here is Matthew 11:28,29 for you in The Passion Translation: Jesus says, ‘Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle and humble. You will find refreshment and rest in me’.
Dear Lord, thank you for refreshing my soul time and again. I praise and thank you for nourishing me more than the choicest food and healing me more deeply than the most knowledgeable doctor. Amen.
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