Sewing Spirit Back Together

I’ve been thinking about healing, and what that really means. During our Marsh Associate meeting with Jen and Soren on Monday evening, we heard two pieces of verse about this subject. The first was from Jeremiah, chapter 8, verse 22:

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”

We sang the second passage from an African-American spiritual, There Is a Balm in Gilead, which responded to this passage. The chorus and first verse went as follows:

There is a balm in Gilead / To make the wounded whole; / There is a balm in Gilead / To heal the sin-sick soul.

Some times I feel discouraged / And think my work’s in vain, / But then the Holy Spirit / Revives my soul again.

I also learned that in Eastern Christian traditions, the notion of sin is closely associated to sickness. The act of salvation, therefore, encompasses not relieving someone of the debt or weight that their spirit feels, but in curing and restoring them. The association between salvation and healing can also be found in the medicinal salve, which derives from the latin verb salvo, to save. This idea appears in the two passages, both in the balm for the wounded and the spiritual revival the Holy Spirit confers to us.

But what about the other kind of spiritual wounds that aren’t related to sin? We will all encounter moments of physical and emotional injury in our lives occasionally. When these wounds are particularly severe, we can also develop scars that linger with us long after. However, I rarely hear the expression of spiritual scars used. Now, on the one hand, it is a good thing that I don’t hear of scarred souls too often. But I do believe they exist, especially when a person feels alienated or betrayed by their own faith.

When I say this, I think of people who have felt rejection from their own faith community. This is particularly relevant for members of the LGBTQ community, many of whom may face exclusion or hatred from their religious communities after coming out. Another example is a person who loses a close friend, family member, or their home and possessions unexpectedly. The list goes on and on.

How do people find spiritual healing from these kinds of experiences? How does a person sew their spirit back together? The answer to this question seems different to the one that the spiritual provides to Jeremiah’s question.  One’s faith alone that God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit will do this doesn’t seem to be adequate answer to me. For some people, it might be enough. For others, though, traumatic, spirit-rending events can cause their faith in a higher power to waver or shatter.

One way to achieve spiritual healing may be to embrace the idea that time and life are still moving forward. This isn’t to say that life goes on, and that in the grand scheme of things what just happened was insignificant. Far from it. For someone with a wounded spirit, it means that life hasn’t ended, that they will not remain frozen in a perpetual state of despair.  If they can find some support, love, hope, and laughter in others and in themselves, their soul can begin to stitch back together and restore itself. I believe that there is a salve to sew one’s spirit whole again. But there may also be scars where it heals.

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