I had a torn rotator cuff.

My left shoulder can predict the weather, and I’m only 23.

I tore it when I slipped on some ice my freshmen year of college.  There was some uncertainty as to whether or not it was actually torn.

So I’ve never gotten it fixed, mostly because anesthesia scares the hell out of me.

It’s not very bad, it doesn’t bother me day to day.  It really only hurts if I strain it, overuse it or sleep on it wrong.

I went up for prayer at church once to get it healed.  Nothing happened.

It wasn’t that the people didn’t pray well enough, or the church wasn’t right, or we didn’t believe enough.  It was my attitude.

I went up thinking to myself, “I’ll get it prayed for, and if it doesn’t work I’ll finally go to the doctor.”

I didn’t really need it to be healed.  I wasn’t relying on God as my only source of healing.  I had health insurance.

It would just be more convenient if God had done it then, rather than going to the doctor for consultation, pre-op, op, post-op, physical theraphy, yadda yadda yadda.

Health care is so easy in America.  Most of us can go to the doctor at any time, with minimal out of pocket expense.

No wonder we’re not used to seeing miraculous healing acts of God.  We don’t even really think we need it.

I don’t think I was alone in that attitude, “maybe God will heal me, if not, then I’ll go.”

And we come on the other side too, “God, medical science has exhausted all possibilities, please show up now, now I really need you.”

I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with these two attitudes.  We are exercising our faith and recognizing God’s power.  But I guess I can understand why God might withhold his healing.

Our God can perform miracles, we’ve heard about it, we’ve read about it, some of us have even seen it.  But why not more?

It seems like Jesus and the apostles were walking around healing people left and right.

Maybe it’s because God is our Plan B.

I was willing to pull out my magic God wand only when I had reason to question my faith in medical science.

I don’t know if it was faith that I needed to increase.  I mean, I really believed that God could heal my arm.

Maybe it was a question of wholehearted reliance.

Galatians 3:5—Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?