There are so many diseases; it’s hard to know much about any of them, much less become interested in all of them … unless one of them affects a member of your family or a close friend. I spent the first part of my adult life in hospital labs, specifically in the chemistry and special chemistry departments. So, I knew a bit about epilepsy; but when my grandson was diagnosed with childhood absent epilepsy, I began to learn everything I can about it.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition affecting the nervous system. Epilepsy is also known as a seizure disorder. It is usually diagnosed after a person has had at two seizures, or one seizure with the likelihood of more, that were not caused by some known medical condition. There is no known cause for 60 per cent of epilepsy patients. I was surprised to learn that 65 million people around the world and three million people in America have epilepsy. One third of them live with uncontrolled seizures because no available treatment works for them. (Epilepsy.com)
Current treatments for our grandson have not controlled his seizures, so we are still learning and testing and trying drugs and diets and praying …
When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:13-17)
Greyson will be going to Atlanta this spring for more testing and we’re hoping and praying from more definitive answers and a more effective treatment. But Jesus is using this medical statement to make a spiritual point about looking for cures.
Sin is a spiritual disease causing guilt and shame … and it’s a pandemic. So, we’re all looking for a cure. I read “The Denial of Death” in college about people who engage in dangerous activities in order to avoid thinking about death and judgment. There are other people who bury their guilt and shame in alcohol and drugs and other addictions. Some of us become workaholics or fanatics of one kind or another. A few of us have found the “cure” in Jesus, who died for our sins!

Charles “Buddy: Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Woodland-Bold Springs UMC, a marketplace chaplain, and, with Mary Ella, a missionary to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.