“Truth Sharing”

“There Is a Balm in Gilead”

I have been writing for some time now in relation to my own personal journey after being given an indication that I needed to open-up, to be a witness to “truth”, to help counteract the current descent into lies and destruction that seem to laugh at the very idea of “Otherness” and, in particular, the existence of a “God.” I was, in-a-sense- “instructed” to attempt to bring together a group of “truth-tellers” who would literally tell their own stories, in their own words, to audiences “assembled” for that purpose, and thus to speak of their own individual “spiritual” or “otherness” experiences, in an effort to counter the destructive voices so current in all our lives at this point in history. To, in fact, in a very personal and positive way, speak up for this (for want of a better expression) “Divine Presence” that is everywhere and always at work (even if unheralded) in the lives of those peoples who are open to it, and even those (unbeknownst to them) who are not (“God makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust equally”).

This “inspiration” set in train in me a sense that in order to counter a lie, others must “hear” truth (“Who has ears let him hear”), because there is something in its telling that communicates more than just the (sometimes) poorly retold stories of individual change affected by the intervention in our lives of (for want of a better way of saying it) “the Holy Spirit”. I have entitled this piece in the manner I have because it “came to me” to do so. It is not to convey the “Christian Story” that I write this, but only to open the possibility that this sense or feeling of something to address the wounds inflicted by life here on earth exists and has long been acknowledged in many cultures. Our collective “wounds” are not only of a physical nature however (though indeed they do always represent themselves in and through both our physical self and our psychological self in the form of ill-health of various kinds, and through depression, anxiety, loneliness, fear and self-harming behaviours, including suicide in the more extreme cases). They also act on our spiritual being also, for they open us up to or even cause us to doubt ourselves and our own belief in “otherness” such as to cloud our spiritual perceptual organs (in particular the hearts ability to “mirror” truth as it is presented to us).

Thus the “Door” to the “Rose Garden” of the heart gradually closes, blocking our access to the “Light” therein (or “the Word” if one prefers).

There existed in antiquity a physical balm that had its origins in a place in the mountainous country to the East of the Jordan River. Made from the leaves of a tree it was claimed to have semi-miraculous powers to heal people’s ills. This was at that time the origin of this “balm in Gilead,” and, according to the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah, God told the people of Israel that they should not place their trust in (the balms) supposed miraculous healing power for only He had the power to heal them spiritually or could relieve their oppression. Later still we find that – in the words of the Christian hymn – this, ‘balm in Gilead,’ morphs into the Christ figure of Jesus, and the Christ’s presence to us, and in us.

Thus we see that, whatever we may turn to, to heal ourselves of our “wounds,” those things that assail us on an almost day by day, minute by minute basis, will be of no avail unless this other “door” is acknowledged – not only to exist as such – but to be opened, or to open for us at any moment that we decide to look for such assistance. Remembering God every day, indeed at every moment of every day, is the Sufi Way. We forget this at our peril. However, more than this, to bear witness to the fact that we know this in our lives, behoves us, for truth – if it is indeed thus – must, will be, shared.