Healed People Heal People
“Healed people heal people.” I noticed chaotically scribbled amongst a sea of doodles on one of my children's notes. I just sat down from preaching and in my deep exhale from a tender moment, this caught the periphery of my eye. Something about seeing my preteen child scribble only these words, was confirming in my spirit that I may be on to something significant. The sermon I just preached was centered on a gospel text in the opening scenes of Mark’s gospel where Jesus visits a village and participates in some healing. Upon first blush I didn’t feel up to the task of preaching it. When you start to talk about healing, or anything these days it seems, immediately all the things people think about that word show up in the room. Healing is no different, yet it seems to be distinctly vulnerable in that most people can pretty quickly identify someplace in their life where things are just not quite as they would want them to be. Something hurts, and whether we can easily identify it or not or whether we would want to hold up our hand in a crowded room and admit it, we need healing. Some part of me and some part of you is in need of a holistic restoration, something in my story and your story is in need of redeeming, renewing, or resurrecting. This is as my own spiritual director often says to me, human. To be alive is to hurt to some degree and many of us, present company included, would rather pursue the healing of someone else, be the healer, then be the one in need of healing.
The work of Sozo Justice Collective is intentionally seeking to counterform against that narrative. To create spaces for healing and hope on the way to a more just and beautiful world can be said another way, to ensure that healers get healing. In order to be sure that healers are getting healing, there has to be intentional space created and embodied practices engaged. Enter the offerings of spiritual direction and soul care. These spaces are intended, designed, and well worn paths for people to experience deep healing in the midst of busy lives and busy stories. These spaces are disruptive in their quiet, slow, and spacious nature that beckon the quiet shy spirit in me and in you to come forward and find voice for our need along with a space to encounter the Spirit that can meet that need. Spaces that are about presence and practice are necessary for humans to tend to the parts of themselves that so often live buried beneath the weight of expectation, duty, calling, obligation, or whatever practical way we would say the stuff we do with our days. Jesus talks about healing often, and we see Jesus heal as well as send others to engage in healing throughout the gospels. In fact, the greek word sozo, is translated as healing over 100 times in the New Testament. Suggesting it was the work of Jesus, and then became one of the primary messages and methods of the early church. The healing of individuals, communities, and the whole world seems to be a central theme in the arc of the narrative of scripture, so we would do well to engage it and my deep belief is that we are.
Over the past 20 years of my life I have gone from Bible College student, to urban missionary. Had a brief corporate ladder climbing season, and then back to the inner city as an intentional neighbor, teacher, and then school founder and Head of School. Now as a board member for a variety of ministry related endeavors, a Spiritual Director, Priest, and the sole practitioner for Sozo Justice Collective it is my deep desire to cultivate this space with other healers who are embedded in the work of healing individuals, families, communities, and the world. Healed people heal people, and this work is intended to begin shaping that idea into a tangible reality in our midst. An outpost of beauty, truth, and goodness on what is often a dimly lit path in a dark and dangerous world. There are two distinct ways you can join me in this season:
Help me find the healers. Offering spiritual direction, soul care, and strategic support virtually, means I can connect to anyone anywhere in the world. If you know them, support their work, or are them, let’s connect. The simplest way is to have you make a warm introduction or for them to reach out directly to benjamin@sozojustice.com . Even if someone is unsure what these offerings are or mean, a conversation could be the difference in them stepping towards healing and hope in a new way in this season.
Empower the healing of the healers. This work is made possible without cost and virtually in order to ensure healers do not have to consider how they might step into a space like this. No board to ask, no funding of their own needed, I want healers to be able to reach out and begin walking the path to healing and hope. This means your financial support makes that possible. Would you consider a one-time or monthly gift to begin empowering healers today? If so, you can do that here.
Thank you in advance for the ways in which together we can create space for healing and hope on the way to a more just and beautiful world.
Benjamin Wills
Founder, Executive Director
This is part 1 of a 3 part series in which we walk through the name and methodologies of Sozo Justice Collective.
