If you have ever had a broken bone you that being still is not easy. I have had my share, but a few years back when I started having surgery on my wrist after a softball injury, I learned what being still was. I not only had one surgery on my wrist, but two. I must say I have yet to slide into base again head first! But, this girl was safe!As I had totally ripped my tendons, that surgery was not enough to bring healing. I had to have another, taking out a bone that had died during the healing of my tendons. That surgery was the hardest of all. Three scars later, my wrist will never be the same, but healing is there.
After my surgery I had to wear a cast for about eight weeks. Then a splint for about six weeks, and then the fun beginning of therapy, which lasted a total of about nine months.
So here I was playing softball, laughing and having a great time, then just a few hours later all seemed to change. Here I was in pain, couldn't use my wrist and went through painful injections for almost five months before the first surgery. It seemed as though this pain was just going to stay forever. But with surgery, and therapy I can now do things I couldn't before and am still working on things I can't do, but it was during that waiting period, that time of being still that I realized how life was like my circumstances.
Isn't it though? We are going on along just fine, and then out of no where we slide into something that just about breaks us! It's in that slide that we find ourselves on our face, in the dirt, wondering just how this happened.
When life brings us down we just can't stay there. To find healing, we must get in there where it hurts the most, working out the pain, and bringing in healing. I must say, therapy was one of the hardest things I have had to endure. I was blessed with an awesome therapist who knew my pain, knew how to push me, and just when I needed to rest, well, she was there to push harder. I would sit there before her with tears streaming down, in pain, wanting to give up, but she pushed me through. If not for her, I would not be able to use my wrist today. Healing was beginning.
Today as I still play softball, and am now doing yoga, my wrist flairs up badly. I put ice on it, put the splint back on, and as the swelling reduces, I know healing is at work again. But life is just like that, right? Just as soon as we think we are over something, wham! There is it to flair up again and again. But what I am learning is, I still must use what was once broken and bruised. I can't just not use my wrist, and allow the pain to take over. I must dig in there and work through that pain. I can't close my eyes to pain and wish it away. It takes work, it takes effort and motivation to work through pain. And letting go of our expectations is a start to healing. My wrist will never be the same after being injured, but over time, healing has brought me to a new place. Through the struggles of learning to use it in a different way and learning what I can't do teaches me daily how to live through the pain of other circumstances.
It was during my second surgery that other pain had overcome my life. This was a circumstance I didn't think I would make it through. It was the hardest time in my life I believe. It was the time when my daughters left home, and I was deep in depression and couldn't find my way out. But when I had to go through this second surgery, and through therapy for such a long time, it was in that time of being still that God brought healing and lessons in other areas of my life. I learned I can make it. I chose to make it. Through all the pain and hurt, healing was taking place in my heart, mind and body. God was doing a work in me. It is only now that I can look back and see that God used that time in my life to bring healing in so many ways. I chose not to give up and He chose to stay with me every step of the way.
Just like a broken vase that crashes to the floor. If it is a favorite and means much, you are going to try to put it back together. You will use the strongest glue you have. You might not ever be able to put water in it as you once did, but as you set it on the table you can see the light streaming through those little cracks. Those little cracks that were not once there, but now, add a different kind of beauty, and it is through the brokenness that the light can shine through.
I have been broken just as you. Healing is there. Be still and allow God to move in you in ways you never thought possible. Things may never be the same as they once were, but life has a way of bringing beauty to the least expected places. Just as old things pass away, new things are on the horizon and they are reachable! Healing is possible. It may hurt. It may take time. But healing will come. God has a way of giving us glimpses of hope to encourage us through those times of healing. In Him we find peace, comfort and the love we need to see there is hope. For in that hope is where we find Christ. God can fix all those things I cannot. He is the Great Healer. The Great Physician. Be still and allow Him to wash His healing over you today.
Psalm 37:7a "Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act."
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed."
Philippians 4:13 "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."
