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A little review of my religious background yields the following:

The Brethren in Christ (originally called the River Brethren – with perceived ties to the Dunkards) emerged from Mennonites in the late 1700’s – those living in Eastern Pennsylvania.  My ancestors migrated to Canada – moving to Ontario and then to Saskatchewan (Kindersley).

The emergence into the Brethren movement was based on an attraction that these Mennonites found to Brethren beliefs.  The Brethren originated in Germany in 1708, mixing Pietist belief and practice (deeply personal in reaction to formalism and intellectualism), along with Anabaptist non-conformity and biblical pacifism.

From this group comes a strong sense of an individual approach to matters of faith and a strong stress on loving relationships.

The Brethen in Christ movement was/is in-spired (motivated) by Christ.  You start with Jesus and live in Jesus as you live with others of like belief.

Our new age of the internet (OK, not so new!).

I received a notice to review the updated security and privacy terms on a program called WordFence.  This program helps protects my blog site and another website I own. 

I love to think that I can control everything.  But even security providers know that the Devil is still there!  Here is an excerpt from the updated terms:

Due to the complexity and open nature of the Internet, no transmission of data over the Internet can be 100% secure. There is always a risk that information collected by and/or displayed on the Service may be compromised or accessed notwithstanding the steps we take to secure your information. For example, a third party may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or other users of the Service may abuse or misuse your personal information. Accordingly, you agree that you are providing such information at your own risk.

Academics and practitioners are exploring the new world of COVID-19.  One of those explorations is whether healing can be done at a distance.  This is a science based discussion about ehealthcare.  Can conference meetings, data gathering and other health diagnoses be legitimate?

My mind went to Christian healing at a distance.  Is prayer/faith transmitted over a distance (virtually) able to heal the sick?  Do we need to be in the physical presence of someone to see them healed?  How do we see healing in Jesus’ name working?

My denomination has a notorious approach to healing.  James 5 (in the Bible) talks of the in-person approach – along with many other biblical passages.  We have gleaned from those narratives a sense of how Christian healing works – the actual in-person practises that promote healing.

We also play well with prayer requests for healing.  Again, there has been a long history of this approach right back to the beginning of the early Christian church.

And so, we are ready for a pandemic. 

Or are we?   A pandemic pushes us to re-examine how much we believe in healing at a distance.

Do we really understand how our “prayer” diagnosis for healing works?  Can we rightly pray healing in Jesus’ name and know with certainty that there is healing taking place – even if we never meet someone?  How do we monitor healing that happens virtually? 

Here is a thought . . .  

People truly shaped in and by prayer (the ultimate virtual conference meeting and virtual diagnosis center) may be our leaders in regaining a healthy sense of healing at a distance!

I’ve just finished auditing three online post-secondary courses in the past two weeks.  Which really means I listened to around 120 videos (each about 10-15 minutes long).

All three courses were on history, basically covering from 0 AD through 2013 AD.

What a quick reminder of the place of the “people” in history.  We seek for power, wealth, and wisdom in deadly cycles.  We seem to affirm that to kill off our opponents will bring purity.  We act as though we are God.  That doesn’t work well.

And somehow in the battles and the reigns of kings and kingdoms, we see that old phrase arise – “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  And then that next phrase, “take heed lest you fall.”

And somewhere in the midst of “reading” all this history, I catch that glimpse when I look to the periphery, that there is a God – a “beyond us” being.  Who judges, and yet loves – who knows all, and yet gives free will – who controls all, and yet hears pleadings.