As I reported in my
last blog post, Wednesday night at training camp,
Jacob McLafferty, a racer who had lost his hearing as a child, was healed. After an hour of prayer, he was able to hear without his hearing aids.
Now, I have a confession to make. Like a lot of you, I’m a skeptic. Can’t help it; it’s just the way I’m wired. Too many people want to help God by embellishing their stories. When I hear about a healing, I always want to know the details and establish what is real and what’s exaggeration.
So today I talked to Jacob (still at training camp) and asked him a skeptic’s questions. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
Q: Is your healing real?
A: Yes, the healing is real. I’ve been wearing hearing aids since first grade. After they prayed for me (Wed. night), I took out my hearing aids out and covered my ears. And I was able to hear!
Q: Is your healing total?
A: No, while I can hear again without the hearing aids, I still need help hearing a person speaking from a distance.
Q: Will people on your team continue to pray for a total healing?
A: Yes. There is one girl on my team who challenges me to continue to believe God for more. She won’t let me put the hearing aids back in.
Before finishing the conversation, we talked about how he’s waiting to tell his parents when he returns home to Stillwater, OK. We talked about the Oklahoma State football team and their new star quarterback. I prayed for him. And Jacob promised to stay in touch with me on the race to let me know how he’s doing.
And six days later, his father, Mike McLafferty wrote this:
“Our son is the one that got partial hearing back while at camp. We had dinner yesterday at Olive Garden and setting across from us he was able to hear every word. We have not been able to do that in a very long time. I was very skeptical when I first heard the news as most people would be. Since he has been back, his hearing aids have been in his pocket.”
Yes, folks, I’m a skeptic, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe. It just means I’m going to be thorough in checking out things out that seem incredible like Jacob’s healing. Unlike a lot of skeptics, I don’t let my natural bent get in the way of my investigation of spiritual reality.
The problem we skeptics can have is that we let our natural bent keep us from believing. The good news is, Jesus doesn’t judge us. He had a ministry to skeptics. “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” he said to one. (
John 20:29)
Jacob’s experience shows us he still heals. And even if belief may be hard, Jesus wants to help us trust him for more.
