FAITH AND THE QUICK FIX

 

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Colin C M Campbell, PhD

March 9, 2024

 

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Frequently, people with a major problem came to OSL, hoping for a “quick

fix.” And why not? Are they any different from the people who came to

Jesus? And did he not give them a quick fix? He did but, often, he looked

for a particular characteristic. Before he healed the three blind men, he

asked them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” To the woman with the

issue of blood, he said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” Early in

his ministry, he was unable to perform any healings because of people’s

lack of faith. So, clearly, faith is a contributing factor in our healing.

The Gospel accounts assure us that, when our need is presented to Jesus

with faith, a kind of healing happens that may accurately, and rather

irreverently, be termed a “quick fix.” However, unpacking what faith is and

how we come to have it is a fascinating exercise in analytical thinking.

Based on their analysis of the Gospel healing accounts, some have seen

healing as consisting of two parts: God‘s part and our part. God‘s part is to

heal; our part is to have faith.

But this simply will not do!

To take the view that faith is something that supplicants must supply is

simply to cast them back on their own resources, which, all too often, are

woefully inadequate. It is a form of healing by works. If we are not to be

Pelagians or semi-Pelagians, our healing cannot depend in any way on our

contribution. Healing is pure gift, from start-to-finish.

The requirement of strict orthodoxy then means that, built into our nature,

there is a faculty upon which the Holy Spirit can operate in an involuntary

way – that is, without our participation and, equally important, despite our

resistance.

Such a faculty exists!

In Greek, it is called the “nous,” sometimes translated as the “mind.”

However, this translation does not cover its full range of meaning. When

the Holy Spirit speaks a charism to the nous, it speaks in power primarily to

the emotions of the heart, generally accompanying this with an idea for the

mind.

This is indeed an involuntary process, which everyone experiences,

whether Christian or not. The most common example of this is when our

actions make us feel good or bad. Now clearly actions cannot make us feel

anything. It is our reaction to our actions that are responsible for our

emotions. Certainly, conditioning is one cause of our reactions, especially

childhood conditioning but there is a deeper cause. All human beings are

created in the image of God. This gives them an in-built moral compass. I

do not have to learn that it is wrong to harm others. The instinct to love

others is built-in. Rather, it is harming others that must be learned!

It is Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, who triggers our built-in moral instinct,

making us feel good or bad, according to what we have done. He speaks to

everyone, Christians and non-Christians. We cannot stop him speaking to

our hearts and minds. And so, the process is an involuntary one. However,

most people do not realize that when they have such uncomfortable

feelings that this may be Jesus speaking to them. So, they turn to

psychologists to obtain help to get rid of their discomfort and so forfeit the

chance to grow spiritually. This is the first characteristic of the nous – to be

able to listen to and be influenced by God.

A second characteristic of the nous is a built-in desire for happiness or

what the Greeks called “eudaimonia” and what Jesus called “fulness of

life.” Jesus said that he came to give us this fulness of life. So, healing

happens when Jesus’ desire to give us fulness of life meets our desire to

receive fulness of life. The nous is the battleground where the outcome is

decided. Saint Augustine put it this way: “You have made us for yourself

and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

But we may ask, “Why does finding happiness have to be a battle? God

wants us to be happy. We want to be happy. God is God and is all

powerful, so why does he have to fight a battle to give us the gift of

happiness? The desire for fulness of life is God-given and built-in. God

nourishes this impulse with gifts of people, purpose and a role in building

his Kingdom. We are then faced with a decision: either to live, according to

the Ten Commandments and be happy or to choose to find happiness our

own way.

It is when we decide to live life in God‘s way that we find faith. Faith is

something that emerges gradually as we learn to enjoy the benefits of living

in God’s way. And so it is pointless to berate someone by telling them that,

if they want to be healed, they must have faith. Faith is not an idea that we

manufacture by thinking and impose by willpower. Faith is a trust in God

that is grown through living in a relationship with him.

Years of living life in our own way obscures the possibility of us finding

faith. Yet, God does not abandon us and so his desire to save us and our

desire to please ourselves clash on the battleground of the nous.

This reasoning suggests that healing occurs gradually. Indeed, it does. The

process is called “sanctification.”

However, as well as gradual healing, the Gospel accounts show that Jesus

also healed certain problems immediately, leading many to come to us,

seeking a quick fix. Jesus did not send supplicants away, telling them to

come back when their faith was stronger. He healed them, then and there!

We must press the question then: How was he able to do this?

Jesus’ Presence was so powerful that it removed all the blocks that prevent

healing and established all the bonds that make healing possible. And this

happened in the most unlikely people – tax-collectors, sex-workers and

Roman centurions. No spiritual examination, healing of memories, or

spiritual journey is recorded. Healing was not by a gradual ascent but by an

immediate experience – the breakthrough of life in all its fullness. And when

supplicants respond with faith in a loving OSL healing community, we see

the same pattern of healing replicated.

However, even with Jesus, there were people who, when they came into

his Presence, were not healed; the most obvious example being the

Pharisees. We have all met the person who just wants the quick fix,

desiring the healing without going to the trouble of desiring the healer. Then

there are those who have lost a spouse through divorce, or a job by

downsizing, or their comfort zone by a medical diagnosis. These problems

are complex and require complex solutions. By comparison, the Gospel

healings were relatively straightforward. For this reason, yes, quick fix

healing has its place, alongside the less evangelical approach of the

gradual healing provided by the rule of a spiritual discipline.