Healing is Hard, Part I

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall (Psalm 55: 22, NIV).

Healing is hard—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It’s a process, and it always takes longer than we think it should. And, truth be told, the process may never truly end.

Instead of “ending,” the process simply ebbs, flows, and changes based on where we are in life and what we’re experiencing. I really believe this is true in every aspect of our lives. As a physical therapist for the last nine years, I’ve been able to see first-hand what a healing process looks like, and though things do typically follow a somewhat predictable timeline, I’m often surprised by what it takes to help someone heal from an injury.

Let me walk you through, in general terms, what it looks like to address a problem as a physical therapist and talk about how that relates to healing in every aspect of our lives.

I have a new patient evaluation scheduled for 11:00 a.m. I review the paperwork to find out their main complaint is pain in their shoulder. My job as a physical therapist is to sit down with the patient, complete an interview where I learn more about their pain, what aggravates the problem, what eases the symptoms, what their goals are for recovery, and then we dive into a hands-on examination where the goal is to figure out the origin of the problem.

Once this is completed, I then work toward providing solutions (stretching, strengthening, hands-on techniques, etc.) that will address their pain and get them back to doing things they were able to do prior to their injury. Though the procedure for performing an evaluation is similar for most every injury, the details and process each patient goes through to work toward healing almost always looks different according to their individual needs and experience.

The parallel between physical and spiritual/emotional healing has always been helpful for me, especially when I get frustrated with where I am on my spiritual journey. At times, I will find myself struggling with a certain issue, and I ask the Lord, Jesus, why is this taking so long? I thought I would be further along by now. Goodness, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those statements from patients I’ve been working with as their recovery from an injury or a significant surgery is taking longer than they would like.

Because I’ve walked through these injuries and their subsequent healing processes many times over, it’s easier for me not to get impatient with the process. As a result, I am able to allow my patients to ask questions, and express frustrations, all the while being better able to provide support and encouragement for them.

When I apply this concept to my own journey of spiritual and emotional healing, I am reminded that the one leading the healing process for me is the Son of God himself, Jesus Christ. If I am asking and requiring my patients each day to trust me with their healing process, how vital is it for me that I’m able to lay my fears, worries, and impatience at the feet of Jesus? It’s the most important choice I can make as a follower of Christ as He walks me through every single step of the process.

Psalm 55:22 asks us to do the following: Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall (NIV). As I travel the narrow path of my own journey of spiritual and emotional healing, I am constantly faced with the decision of trying to navigate the process on my own, or choosing to trust Jesus with the unknown.

When my patients are faced with the decision to place their trust in me and the physical therapy process or attempt to navigate it on their own, I pray every day that they choose to trust the process. When they choose to trust me, even though I may not always have been able to give them the answers they would like to hear, I can promise to walk with them through every step.

Next week I’ll dive a little deeper into some specifics of a physical healing process I’ve been working through as I highlight another lesson the Lord has been teaching me. But until then, I’ll leave you with this truth: When we choose to lay our worries, fears, and frustrations at the feet of Jesus, we can rest assured that the outcome, though it may not look exactly as we would like, will always lead us to a closer walk with Him.