Collector of Good Vibrations?

Kaitlin was a most challenging patient.  I diagnosed her with inflammatory bowel disease when she was only a child, and her condition never seemed to be under control with medications, despite me trying her with multiple treatment options.  Kaitlin had an attractive smile, but her face always seemed pale from anemia, and she was malnourished.  Her disease prevented her intestines from absorbing nutrients properly, and because she constantly had nausea, stomachaches and diarrhea, she was afraid to eat.  I worried that her intestines might not be able to properly absorb the medications that I prescribed, and ordered a laboratory test to measure her drug level.  It was undetectable, and I eventually confirmed through Kaitlin’s confession that she had not taken any of her pills, because she developed a psychological fear of taking any form of medication.  By the time she entered high school, Kaitlin’s symptoms often seemed to provide sufficient reason for her mother to keep her home from school, and her numerous school absences soon alerted the school administrator to call the local police to investigate the family.  To make matters worse, her parents’ marriage disintegrated, and her father ended up in jail shortly afterwards.

Things were definitely not looking up.

I spent many hours working with Kaitlin and her mother, and am thankful that she eventually responded somewhat to a treatment regimen (it was a medication that the nurses had to give intravenously in the clinic, so that we did not have to worry about her not taking her medication).  We developed sufficient familiarity with each other over the years that the mother started to share with me various concerns, many of which I was unable to help directly.  During one of these conversations, I asked the mother’s permission to pray for her, as I did not know whether she was a Christian.

“Oh, that is so nice of you, Dr. Duh.  Sure, I am always happy to have positive healing energy sent my way from people of different faiths.”

I did pray for her, but was also a bit dumbfounded by her response.  Sending positive healing energy?  I knew how to send a prescription to the pharmacy, and I’ve sent many letters.  I’ve even sent flowers to my wife, but I’ve never knowingly sent energy before.  Was I supposed to call the post office?  FedEx?  UPS?  How is this positive energy supposed to be packaged, in a box?  Bubble wrap?

Praying for a person is not the same thing as sending him or her positive thoughts or healing thoughts.  When I pray, I am praying to God, the sovereign Creator of the universe, who can do all things.  My thoughts have no power, and my prayers are useless if they are not directed to God.  If I say that I am sending healing thoughts, positive thoughts, positive vibrations, healing energy, or even “prayers” to a person, I am presuming that I can harness divine forces, even control and manipulate God to do what I want, in the same way that we harness wind and solar power.  May this never be!  God is the source of all our existence, visible or invisible, and He is not amused when we presume to take His place or find a substitute:

“‘See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.  (Deuteronomy 32:39)

I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.  (Isaiah 45:5-6)

  remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me, (Isaiah 46:9)

I will not send healing thoughts to a person.  I will instead pray to God, the Healer, whose thoughts have more power than anything that fallen mankind can conjure.