This Sunday's Gospel tells the miracle story in which a deaf man is instantly healed by Jesus' words and actions. 

I personally struggle with stories like this because they seem so foreign to me. 

I don't have a deep well of experiences to draw from in my life where I have personally witnessed instant healing. That is in contrast however to numerous stories in my life where I feel God's presence working over a long period of time. It is the gradual ebb and flow of change in my life that registers as a "miracle" when I look back on it, but usually not something that resembles a flash of lighting. 

As a storyteller, I recognize that us humans often conflate time to make a story work better. In my mind, I frequently justify the miracles in the Bible as constructs that a storyteller would use. Something that may have taken weeks to accomplish are cumbersome to explain, and so the teller describes the actions as if they were immediate. What was long becomes short. 

Time has always been an inexact memory that we hold. To illustrate this point, take our shared memories of the COVID pandemic. Looking back on the events that unfolded in 2020, it would be easy to tell a story that moved it along very quickly... "Millions of people were dying across the world, and then a vaccine came out which saved those not infected and the world returned to normal." Yes... it absolutely happened that way, or so it seemed. But in May of 2020, the vaccines didn't seem like they were arriving instantaneously. It seemed painfully gradual and desperately elongated. 

But once in a while, things do move at an elevated clip. This past Spring, my father died, and while there were many griefs and many blessings involved in his passing, at the time of his funeral, I found myself distraught. I would go to the side of his grave and cry intensely, bouncing between bitterness, doubt, grief, anger, and confusion. I would be in the middle of conversations and find myself locked up, without the ability to speak, to move, or react. 

But one day while I was on retreat, I was given a spiritual exercise by my retreat director to reflect upon, and in the midst of the exercise, I had a profound experience which lifted the burden of my father's passing almost instantaneously. I walked away with such a profound freedom that I almost felt guilty. Sure, I remain sad and have moments where I really miss my dad, but God graced me with an identifiable moment of healing, not unlike the instantaneous miracles we read about in scripture. 

What I take away from this is definitely not the permission to project my experience onto you or anyone for that matter. If you're struggling to see God because you lack the experience of a sudden miraculous bolt of lighting, that's OK. To have a relationship with God you don't have to expect great things to happen in an instance. 

But if they do, that's also OK. You don't have to discredit the possibility that God has touched your life in a profound way at peak moments within your life.

We do ourselves a service when we support one another in the truth that God's constant love works in different ways. We honor God by recognizing the way that each of us has varied experiences of the divine and to give thanks for those differences. 

I guess you could say, that is the long and the short of it. 

Bulldog Buddies

Bulldog Buddies is a class for students who turn two years old by September 1, 2024.  Our experienced teachers and engaging curriculum offer children the opportunity to experience our school setting in a safe, nurturing environment along with their caregivers.

Classes will meet on:

Tuesdays and Fridays

October 1 - November 22nd (No class on November 8th)

8:00 am - 9:30 am

Click here to register.​​​​​​​

Come Join Us!

Applications are now open for 24-25! Do you have a friend or neighbor that is considering applying to the best school in Chicago? Sign up for a tour here: schedule a tour New student applications for the 24-25 can be found here: New Student Application