Healing Hurts!

8 days ago I had arthroscopic surgery on my right shoulder. For over 2-3 years now I've put this off, not wanting to deal with everything that came along with it. I didn't want to pay for it. I didn't want to take the risk - hearing one person's radical transformation, but then listening to the next person's nightmare horror story. I had all these excuses why I just didn't want to mess with it. But beyond any other reason or excuse, there was one that paralyzed me more than any other: I didn't want to go through the healing.

I exercise regularly - I love to run. But over the last couple of years I have grown to enjoy weightlifting more than anything else. (I know - you were looking at me and wondering, "Does he take steroids?") I knew that having surgery on my shoulder was going to mean that at minimum, I would be out of the weight room for 6 weeks. And when I go back, it will be a LONG road. I didn't want to deal with this. I didn't think I was patient enough to go through the healing. And physical therapy? Forget it! Those folks are sadistic torturers! To put it straight: I spent several years just "dealing with the pain" and furthering injuring myself because I didn't want to take time to heal. And as I sat in my recliner last week with ice plastered to my shoulder, I began thinking: How many people are in this same position in their lives? How many of us are in desperate need of healing, but because we don't want to go through the pain...we just keep on walking, keep on hurting, fooling ourselves into thinking that we're just fine "dealing with the pain"?

I don't know if you've got a back injury, a wounded ego, or even a broken heart, but whatever it is, you can't just keep walking without doing further damage. I know it hurts to deal with it. Sometimes, it can even feel like you're ripping the wound open all over again. But when a cut doesn't heal properly, often it has to be reopened so that real healing can actually begin. And typically, that hurts a little. To put it plainly: Healing hurts! But you do want to heal...right?

David praises God in Psalm 30, saying, "O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and you have healed me." Jesus Christ is the Great Healer. He is faithful. And whatever your wound or hurt, He can touch your life and bring healing. But just like David, you have to cry out to Him for help. You have to come to the point of saying, "I've had enough, Lord. Whatever you have to do to restore me, here I am."

Where are you in need of healing in your life?
Are you convinced you'll just keep "dealing with the pain"?
What are you waiting for? Cry out to Him!