Joyful Transformation

Pain: It can take over and control your life, if you let it.
Injury: You have to allow time to heal; you must cease activity that causes pain.
Healing: Allowing time and rest to work on the injury, enduring pain and recognizing the difference in what is making you better and what is aggravating you.
Patience: The key to healing.
Control: What you must give up when dealing with pain.

My husband calls me a control freak! It is not that I exhibit Type A personality traits, I don’t. It is not that I want to be in charge of everyone else, I don’t. It is just that I cannot stand to let someone or something else be in control of ME! So needless to say this whole injury thing is not going so well. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day here. I was dying to play tennis, but I couldn’t. Sunday was equally as nice, I wanted to ride the Sea-Doo, but I couldn’t. By Monday I had reached my limit. I went to Spin Class. How much do you have to use your left arm to ride a bicycle? More than I thought! From tightening my straps on my feet, to balancing where I could reach with my right hand to get a drink of water, I realized that I do need my left hand. Well, I survived, but was in much more pain than I thought I would be. It is amazing how my shoulder hurts from straining to keep my arm from getting hurt. Every body part is called on to adjust for the hurt arm.

Tonight, I went to tennis practice. I mean, how much do you use your left arm to play tennis. Of course I do have a two handed backhand and you do need to toss your serve with your left hand. But with a brace on my elbow, I actually played fairly well. I think part of it is the concentration it takes to play when you know certain moves will cause you pain. So the rest of my body works harder or makes sacrifices to help the aching arm heal.

You know, if my elbow could talk it would tell you that it don’t understand why it has to be the one in pain. The feet were the ones that caused the fall and they weren’t even hurt. The hand was the wise guy who thought he could break the fall. The wrist was the one that initially hurt. Even the head snapped back and made contact with the hard courts. And yet, here is the innocent elbow, just hanging out in the middle of the arm, taking all of the impact and suffering all of the lingering effects of a fall that was not it’s fault!

This morning, I could not help but think of the Body of Christ, the church. Many times the “member” hurting had nothing to do with the fall. The impact of other member’s failings cause pain and hurt when you are just going about your business, doing your job. But just like my body makes adjustments for the hurting member, so the church must make adjustments to help our hurting members. Some members may have to carry more than their fair share for a while. Carrying our hurting member may cause other members some temporary pain as well. But just like my body does what it takes to get the healing it needs, so the church will make the changes and adjustments to help our hurting members to heal.

My arm needs ice and rest to fully heal along with exercises that stretch it back to it’s original range of motion. In the same way hurting members must have some space to chill and rest. If all we do is stretch them back to where they once were, we could cause more damage than is already there.

My heart remains heavy for those who hurt because of the fall of others. I pray for them and those who are there to carry them through the pain.