Meditation: "Instant Healing"

This morning I read the story in the gospel of Mark about the healing of the boy who was “possessed of a spirit”. I always find this story inspiring, because it seems to be about a situation that happens to all of us countless times during each day. We are often “possessed” by thoughts of fear, and it is these thoughts that cause every one of our problems, from the smallest to the most severe. We often act somewhat like this boy, blurting out fearful words, looking tense and distraught, even going stiff and tense, much like the lad -- all because of our own thoughts. The problem never exists in some external "problem" or "threat". No matter what it appears to be be or how enormous it looks, every problem originates in our own thinking. Jesus knew this. When he saw the boy acting tense and crazy with fear -- the boy whom everyone else assumed was completely controlled by outside evil forces -- Jesus must have calmly reminded himself of the simple, reassuring truth that every single evil is just a thought. The boy was fearful and crazy because his thoughts were fearful and crazy. Jesus understood this, and he also understood the simple, wonderful recipe for healing: change the thoughts, kill the fear. It's consoling, this morning, to recall this beautiful truth. This is often a scary world we live in, and it is comforting to realize that all the scariness is a product of our own thoughts, and that it can be eliminated as quickly as one thought changes to another one.