God Works to Heal
Post 4 in the “God Can’t” Series: Love Is Always on the Move
God Works to Heal
Post 4 in the “God Can’t” Series: Love Is Always on the Move
TL;DR: If God can't prevent evil, and if God suffers with us, then what does God do? The answer: God works relentlessly to heal. Always. Not by force, but by love. Not from a distance, but from within. Healing is slow, stubborn, often unseen—but it's always in motion.
Not Powerless, Just Different
The oncology ward in the dead of winter carries a weight that matches the season, gray light filtering through windows that haven't seen real sunshine in weeks, depression hanging in the air like the scent of disinfectant. During my chemotherapy for lymphoma, I spent countless hours staring at those gray windows, wrestling with scan results that weren't improving and a God who felt painfully absent.
I didn't expect instant healing. I'm not that naive. But I longed for the kind of God who would intervene decisively, who would ease my pain if I begged. Instead, the God who showed up was quieter, more subversive.
God arrived in the nurse who stayed twenty minutes past her shift to explain why my port wasn't working properly. (I hated that thing, it felt like having a alien implanted in my chest.)
God whispered through the friend who drove across town just to sit with me without needing to fill the silence with platitudes. (Thank God. one more "everything happens for a reason" and I might have thrown something.)
God appeared on the first day I could taste food again, really taste it, after weeks of everything being metallic and wrong. (Nothing worse than craving a Chipotle burrito and having it taste like you're licking a penny.)
It took months, but I began to recognize a God who was:
Deeply present in the mess
Deeply compassionate in the waiting
Deeply engaged in ways I had never considered
Actively healing through channels I had overlooked
God isn't passive.
God isn't silent.
God isn't powerless.
God is love, and love always acts.
But love moves differently than we expect.
What Love Actually Does
Open and Relational Theology offered me a framework that finally made sense of my experience.
The God Can’t Framework (5 Core Truths):
1. God can’t prevent evil.
2. God feels our pain.
3. God always works to heal
As theologian Thomas Jay Oord puts it:
“If God always works to heal but cannot heal singlehandedly, we make sense of why some are not healed. Divine healing isn’t a solitary, controlling, ‘Zap!’ from heaven. It’s not supernatural control. Healing requires cooperation because God always expresses uncontrolling love.”
This changes everything.
God isn't the author of our pain,
But God is always the source of healing,
Even when that process is hidden, slow, or utterly unlike anything we expected.
Resurrection Is Always Slow
Consider Jesus' ministry. He didn't instantly solve every problem he encountered. Instead, he chose a different path:
He sat with lepers in their isolation.
He touched the untouchable when others crossed the street.
He wept at gravesides instead of immediately raising the dead.
He listened deeply to stories others dismissed.
He walked deliberately into the messiest places, choosing relationship over quick results, presence over power.
Then came the cross. love's apparent defeat. For two agonizing days, silence. Darkness. The disciples' shattered hope.
Yet even then, beneath the surface of seeming defeat, healing was quietly unfolding. Love was working in ways no one could see.
That's how resurrection works: slow, subversive, seed-like.
It grows in the dark before it breaks into light.
Love Is Relentlessly Stubborn
Healing rarely arrives as a lightning bolt.
More often, it's a patchwork quilt of quiet, stubborn moments:
The doctor who refuses to give up, ordering one more test when others have moved on.
The friend who shows up consistently, even when everyone else has returned to their normal lives.
That strange day when you found yourself arguing with someone on social media, and felt grateful to care about something so trivial again.
The first deep breath in months that doesn't come with a stab of pain.
That random Tuesday when you woke up and your first thought wasn't about cancer.
Love never stops working.
It keeps creating possibilities, opening doors, planting seeds,
Even when circumstances seem impossible.
Love Doesn't Control Outcomes
Here's the hardest truth I've learned:
God won't override free will to prevent suffering.
God won't rewire broken brains or overthrow tyrants by divine force.
Love honors freedom, even when freedom comes at a devastating cost.
But there's profound power in this vulnerability.
God needs no coercion, no manipulation, no force.
God simply needs hearts willing to say "yes" to love's invitation.
We Are Co-Laborers in Healing
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:9:
"For we are co-workers in God's service..."
God partners with us, and often, healing flows through human hands:
The therapist who helps us reframe our pain into wisdom
The musician who transforms grief into melody that comforts others
The community that surrounds a grieving family with meals and presence
The advocate who keeps speaking truth to power when others grow weary
Love isn't passive, and neither are we.
We are both recipients and agents of healing.
Why This Changes Everything
If God is always working to heal, then nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever wasted.
Not our pain.
Not our broken stories.
Not our smallest acts of courage.
Every scar becomes a story of restoration.
Every rejection opens space for a better "yes."
Every ending plants seeds for something new to grow.
This isn't cheap optimism. it's the stubborn hope that love always has the last word.
As NT Wright says:
"Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one's fellow human beings and for that matter one's fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make… They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom."
You Are Part of the Healing
You don't need to fix everything or save everyone.
But you can say yes to love, right here, right now.
In how you listen to your struggling friend.
In the small decisions that honor dignity.
In your quiet presence when words fail.
This is how healing flows through the world.
This is how resurrection breaks through the cracks.
Reflect + Respond
Where have you experienced healing in subtle, unexpected ways?
How does viewing healing as a partnership change your image of God?
What's one tangible place you can say "yes" to love today?
One Last Thing
May you trust that love is working, even when you can't see it.
May you find courage to say yes to healing, one small moment at a time.
And may you know that your story, every broken, beautiful piece of it.
Is part of something larger than you can imagine.
Amen!
I loved this, Paul. The time God takes to do things for us is on purpose. It pushes to the surface in us all of our unbelief in His love and providence, and ultimately it requires us to choose between the control over pain our pride demands and God.
Paul, your writing is so inspiring. I’d love to share some of your thoughts, along with Tom’s book with a Sunday class I am teaching. The power of love seems so underrated until I read your thoughts.