Two-Step Miracles

Two Step Miracles, by Mike Glenn

As Christ followers, we find ourselves uncomfortable, even a little embarrassed, by the story of Jesus’ healing of the blind man in Mark 8. You remember the story. A blind man is brought to Jesus, and Jesus pulls him aside. Then, Jesus spits on the man’s eyes (see what I mean?) and rubs the spittle into the eyes of the blind man.

When Jesus asked him if he can see, the man says, yes, he can see, but the people look like trees walking around. So, Jesus rubs the man’s eyes again and then, Praise God, the man is healed.

But it took two steps.

What happened? Did Jesus do something wrong on the first try? Did Jesus fail? What was it about this man’s condition that made this healing story different from the others? In the other stories, Jesus just speaks a word, or touches the suffering person one time. Why did this instance take two touches of Jesus?

To be honest, we know nothing of this man’s condition or what Jesus was trying to accomplish in this man’s life. If we knew some of those details, we might cheer for the impossible victory Jesus accomplished in the man’s life.

All we have is the story. Mark, in his pursuit of brevity, leaves out most of the details. Yet, for some reason, both Mark and the early church thought it was important to preserve this story. There was something about the two-step miracle that rang true for them.

Why?

Because most the miracles we know about take more than one step. Yes, there are those people who are healed instantaneously, and we love to hear their stories over and over again. Why? Because they happen so rarely.

For most of us, miracles take a little longer. Have you ever talked to a recovering addict? They will thank God for the healing in their lives and for relationships that have been restored, but they will also tell you it didn’t happen all at once. Their healing comes one day at a time. On their worst days, their healing comes one part of the day at a time. I’ve had friends who would celebrate staying sober until lunch, and then, pray they could stay sober until dinner. When they made it, they celebrated the miracle given to them one minute at a time.

A damaged marriage is restored, but the couple will tell you it didn’t happen overnight. There were hours of hard conversations about words that hurt, about love left unspoken and promises that were broken. There were long days where neither one of the couple thought the marriage would survive, but they promised to stay together for one more day. Sometimes, they would do it for the children. Sometimes, they would do it because they were just too tired to leave. Whatever the reason, they would stay together. The marriage would survive. They would get their miracle…one day at a time.

When I was fifteen years old, I had my wisdom teeth removed. Everything went fine until one morning I woke up and found my right jaw looked like a softball. My mom rushed me back to the surgeon who took one look at me and sort of laughed. “Mike,” he said, “you healed too fast.” He went on to explain the skin of my gums had quickly repaired the hole he left when he removed my wisdom teeth. The closing of the socket happened before all the bacteria, blood and other nasty things could drain. The socket became infected from the trapped bacteria.

Gross, isn’t it?

The reality of our lives is that we can heal too quickly. In our desire to get through our pain, we don’t give our souls time to drain out all the pain and resentment. As a result, our pain gets infected and becomes bitterness. Our healing doesn’t just stop, but it’s set back. We must go back and start all over again. We can’t heal over pain. Issues we refuse to deal with will, sooner or later, deal with us.

In our hurry to “get over” something or “get through this mess”, we rush the healing process. We refuse to allow God to do the deep work required for our healing. Let me explain.

Let’s say you said something to a friend in the heat of an argument. You apologize. You tell your friend you didn’t mean what you said. You just want your friendship back where it was. In our haste, we confuse apology with repentance (no, they aren’t the same), and we do our best to forget it ever happened.

But it did happen. You did say those things and not because you “lost your temper,” but because you have an anger issue. This anger issue boils up from all those times you felt disrespected and overlooked. You’ll pray that God will help you control your anger, but will you allow Him to bring a deeper healing to your anger issue? Well, that’s another step.

Say you pray God will help you kick your addiction – to porn or alcohol or prescription meds – and that’s one step. Will you allow God to do another step? Will you face the issue that’s causing the hole in your heart that’s creating the desire for the addiction? That’s another step.

All the productivity gurus say the most important thing to do is to simply take the first step. I guess that’s true as far as it goes. The first step is important, but so is the second step and the third and the fourth.

The journey is longer than one step, and most miracles require more than one touch. Sure, take the first step, but don’t stop there. Yes, receive the first touch, but don’t be in a hurry. Jesus has a lot more miracles in store for you, and they may take more than one touch.