I am reading Sealed Orders, an autobiography by the Christian mystic and healer, Agnes Sanford. Sanford was an amazing woman of God—writer, speaker, healer, founder of a school of healing—who struggled for years with depression.
She writes, “The basic trouble was that I had forgotten whence I came, and I did not know the sealed orders with which I had been sent to this earth.”
Have you ever thought about the “sealed orders” God sent with you as you burst into this world from your mother’s womb? Orders written by God—God’s detailed plans for your life?
Many of us struggle for years to find our purpose in life, getting sidelined along the way with roles that we allow others to put on us. Sanford set aside her creative gifts for years, believing that she was supposed to fill a cultural expectation as perfect pastor’s wife, mother, cook, and chief bottle washer. Depression set in, and it was the simple healing prayer of an Episcopal priest—and his instructions to spend every morning in writing—that unleashed her creative powers. You see, God’s plans for Sanford’s life included not only the roles of wife and mother, but the roles of a writer and an evangelist for God’s healing power!
This book has set me thinking about sealed orders. Not only mine (which I’m still discerning at the age of 60-plus!) but my son, Joel’s. Joel is 31 years old, and he has autism.
