Yay...instead of entrails and kidney lobes, today's reading in Leviticus was about puss, raw flesh, boils, burns, and all manners of bodily discharge...





Dr. Pimple Poppers' dream, my nightmare.





While reading about the ancient stipulations for women who had "a flow of blood for many days, not during the time of her menstruation," I couldn't help but think of the New Testament account of the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years (Mark 5:25-34 AMP). If the discomfort, fatigue, and discouragement from the condition alone (well...and the unavailability any super absorbent Always with Wings) weren't enough, that poor woman had to endure the painful stigma that came with an "unclean" label (Lev. 15:25-30). Anything and anyone she touched would have had to been washed and face a period of uncleanness as a result.





No doubt she was avoided.... I can't imagine many people were willing to wash their clothes and take a bath and be labeled "unclean" themselves just to be her friend....





Think about it: twelve years without much touch or interaction, of being reminded that she was nothing more than a burden to everything and everyone she came into contact with...seeing physician after physician and spending everything she had only to learn there was no hope...and her problem only got worse...





...that's so heartbreaking!!





And, so relevant.





Outrageous laws requiring people to sacrifice turtledoves or pigeons or to immediately wash their clothes or bathe themselves after the "cheese touch" may be relics of the past (thank the Lord), but there are still stigmas. There are still women and men who because of some label are being avoided, who are lonely, who are feeling like a burden on society, and who feel trapped in their condition and utterly hopeless.





Are there any willing today to inconvenience themselves to meet them where they're at, to share their burden, and to be their friend?





Because the woman in Mark "heard reports about Jesus" and the miracles He was capable of, she went to Him and "touched His outer robe" believing in (and literally clinging to) His power to heal her (Mk. 5:27). After everything...the discomfort and fatigue, the stigmatization, the loneliness, the plethora of doctors...her " faith [personal trust and confidence in Him]...restored [her] to health" (Mk. 5:34). She was healed from her suffering permanently.





!!!





Who, today, is making sure the outcasts, the stigmatized, the isolated, the brokenhearted hear reports about the miracles Jesus is still capable of?





Although I am fortunate to have friends and family who have climbed down into the pit with me to lift me up and back out into His light, I continue to battle feelings of isolation and hopelessness and shame for still battling any of this when my life is so much easier and more blessed than most. I admittedly buy into the lie almost daily that I'm a burden. Why?





Like the woman with the hemorrhage, my issue is a chronic one.





Not only do I need friends (and medication), but I NEED a miracle.





I need Jesus. Faith alone can restore me to health and heal me from my suffering permanently. And with more than 264 million people of all ages currently suffering from the exact same thing, one person dying from it every 40 seconds *, I am most definitely not the only one.





Jesus no longer walks the streets in a physical form, but His Spirit still does in ours. Whether we are the hemorrhaging woman, the crowd, or both, we are also His Hands and Feet to a world that needs to hear reports about what He has done and will do.





In my puny efforts to become a licensed counselor and/or a successful blogger, I want most to be His outer robe. I hope that one day His Spirit will be my bodily discharge (...ok, scratch that...that sounds gross...); I want His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control to seep out of every pore, to radiate off of me in such a way that others go looking for the same faith I've found. I want my struggle to become His story.









*https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression















































