Healing is work!

I sit here this morning with a ten inch wound on the side of my left hip held together with steri-strips. It literally takes me 5 minutes to put on one sock, if I choose not to ask for help. I have advanced from two crutches to one, so that is progress! I am one week out from hip replacement surgery. Every task I used to do with ease now seems monumental. It has been a rough week but thank you Jesus everyday gets better!

What struck me this morning is how incredibly fast the body heals from physical wounds yet this is not so for emotional wounds. One week ago today, skilled surgeons cut away my worn out joint and replaced it with a new one. Out with the old, in with the new! What amazes me is despite the trauma of that cutting away, I was able to bear some weight on that joint that very afternoon, not much weight and it didn't feel great, but some. Here I sit just a week later and I am down to one crutch. A lot can happen in a week's time. I've been told I can resume all activities in as little as 6 weeks!

Oh, but the wounds of the heart! They can take years to heal, if ever! Why is that? I don't have profound answers to this fascinating question but I do have some theories.

Could it be that we don't do the work that is required to heal? Seems like a logical explanation.

I admit that I have been extremely worried about damaging my new joint. This worry has kept me from pushing myself to bear the weight on the joint that is required for it to gain strength. I realized that I had to stop "babying" my new hip so it could grow stronger. As soon as I changed my mindset from protection to growth, I was able to move to one crutch. I also must continue to push through the discomfort of physical therapy exercises in order to gain strength in the joint. Could this be true for the heart as well? Do we have to stop trying to protect so we can experience growth?

What do we need to push through emotionally in order to gain strength and experience healing? What discomfort do we have to push through to experience growth? Are there old habits we need to break that keep us in the cycle of hurting rather than healing? I know from years of experience that these habits are hard to break! It's so much easier to go back to what we know, to what feels comfortable, than to push through the pain towards growth and healing.

I also believe that there are lessons to be learned from emotional healing and these lessons usually take time. The amount of time this takes could depend on how compliant or obedient we are in the lessons, much like my physical healing.

If I am compliant with my exercises, I will likely grow stronger faster, and experience a greater amount of healing. I'm certain I could reach full recovery from my surgery with very limited exercise just through the body's miraculous ability to heal from trauma but this is not my goal. I want full and complete healing! I want to experience a higher quality of life through physical activity. I want to experience physical activity at a high level without physical pain, otherwise the surgery and this new hip is a waste! I would not access its greatest potential.

I believe this holds true for our emotional healing as well. We can avoid our feelings, avoid the pain, and for the most part, carry on with our lives and our relationships all while missing out on reaching their greatest potential. Rather than experience true healing we will continue to operate within our weakness. Our relationships will function out of our weaknesses rather than our new found strength. We will bring the same hurts into our new relationships and continue the cycle.

The picture I see is me continuing to walk with a limp despite having a new hip. I don't have to walk this way anymore. I can experience complete restoration and healing! I have the tools...or should I say the hardware! If we do the work on ourselves and in our relationships, we don't have to limp through life either.

I had no intention of writing today, frankly I never do, God sometimes gives me a word, but there seems to be a message in this for someone!

We've all been hurt emotionally and I believe most of us have stuffed the hurt and haven't been able to experience true healing and restoration. There is growth in the hurt. There are lessons in the hurt if we choose to lean in and learn.

I always say God never wastes a hurt! Ask for healing, ask for revelation, ask for restoration! It's not easy! It takes time. I've been on a healing journey for over four years now! It is a journey I have learned to be grateful for as I choose to live from a place of strength rather than weakness.

Choose to do the work!

-Until next time...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." -Genesis 50:20