What faith can do

If you could see me trying to stand and walk this morning, you would think I was at least 80 years old! Not only am I rehabbing a knee from surgery, but I started working out again at the gym. Not a big deal, unless of course you realize that I haven’t worked out in…well, let’s just say way too long. I live with pain and have for many years. Most days it’s a 2-3 on a scale of 1-10, but today the day is starting out at about an 8. I would love to take some pain meds, crawl back into bed and pretend the day hasn’t yet started. I would love to quit the workouts, which in turn would drop some of the pain. However, I know that in order to get through this hurdle, I have to do just that…get through it.

Maybe you can’t relate to feeling physical pain every day, but you know what it’s like to experience emotional pain. Maybe your emotional pain is a constant ache or maybe today it’s even an ‘8′. I’ve been there. Most days used to have an underlying pain, hurt and depression. I had learned to live with it, or at least tolerate it. Other days it consumed me, forcing me to limp through the day unable to focus on anything but that pain. When I really ‘crashed’, every day became a struggle to even stand. I was overwhelmed with depression and hopelessness and wanted nothing more than to numb myself, curl back up into a ball and shut out the world. Some days I did just that. But the only way I truly made it through the pain to the ‘other side’ was just that…get through it.

Like any workout plan toward improved health, the first weeks are the toughest. Good friends helped me through those dark days (and like physical pain, sometimes we need medical help too), but what brought true healing was trusting and surrendering my life to the only one who could truly bring full healing, Jesus. My faith didn’t suddenly appear one day, it was definitely a process. Like getting physically ‘fit’, it doesn’t happen overnight. If God can take a broken, hopeless, searching and overwhelmed person trapped in the darkest place anyone can be like me, to become a person with peace beyond circumstance, confidence regardless of situation, and hope that overtakes the pain, He can do it for you too.

I’ve been hearing the new song What Faith Can Do by Kutless a lot lately. I love it because it describes my ’story’. The pain may not ever totally disappear, but faith can get you through it to the other side that’s waiting. Check it out…