healing

When I read today's reverb 10 prompt, I sighed a little and rolled my eyes. I admit that I feel like me writing about healing once again would be beating a dead horse, seeing as it's been such a heavy thread throughout my blogging this whole semester. That being said, I thought all day about how to spin this in a different direction, away from the thoughts I've already shared, but my thinking came up pretty empty on that.

the question: What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

a piece of the answer: 
As I mentioned, I've been on the road to healing this year and have written out countless thoughts about it... about friends who have played big parts in it, about the ways the Lord has restored me, and about the lessons I learned in difficulty. All of those things are valuable but I don't want to write about them again because I feel that there is something I have forgotten to convey through all of it and it's this: The world may have slapped me this year, but I was never really beaten by it. In the grand scheme of life, I walk away from this year having learned about the healing process so that I am more able to walk others down that road. I feel as though the people who read my blog think I'm an emotional mess some days and you know what, I can be... but the majority of the time, I sit with my head squarely on my shoulders. My sky has yet to fall, though the roof may have crumbled a time or two.

Here is the best thought I had on healing today: it's tough for us to think through the healing process because it is so tough for us to admit we are broken. If you read through my blog, you'll find moments in the past where I have been brutally honest about myself and I think this is because despite the fact that I daily check my blog stats (and am always pleasantly surprised!) I feel that I'm writing only to the air. I have admitted brokenness at times but I know myself well enough to know that I exaggerate some days. Pain always seems worse in the moment than it is in the aftermath. We can learn to find the silver lining. It's okay to be bothered by things... what it isn't okay to be is defeated by them.

I love the way the prompt phrased it as a "drip-by-drip evolution" because that is exactly what healing is. A precious friend of mine is struggling to cope right now as her dad is in the hospital. I talked with her as I drove through Atlanta the other day and she told me that she wished she could snap her fingers and wake up and it all be over and everything be back to normal. Don't we all wish that sometimes? And the truth of it is that I would've done anything to make that happen for her, but nobody can. We have to have faith in moments of brokenness that the Lord is in control. While that truth reigns clear in our lives and should guide our feet each day, there will still be hard moments and it is still okay to be upset. It's what we do with those emotions that count.

So what has healed me this year? The Lord. It's a simple answer. But He's used a lot of great tools, a lot of great people and scripture and skylines to do it. He's healed me from the specific circumstances of the year, but I pray that I never overlook the fact that he has healed me from so much more than just that. The truth of it is that we all need to be healed... the book of Romans tells us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin are death. Sucks, huh? We fail. But guess what? At just the right time, the Lord sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us that we can be healed from that and saved from our sin and the death that so inevitably follows it. Romans goes on to tell us that while the wages of sin might be death, the gift of God is eternal life. All we have to do to gain that healing is confess it and believe it. (check out Romans 10:9-11 for more on that one. Message me if you want more on any of that...) I think I take for granted daily the way that I have been healed and blessed, not only with the gift of living in Heaven when I die but with the gift of living in the present and walking daily with Jesus. And I take for granted that all of you reading this already know that... you might not. And regardless, I don't want any of us to ever forget it.

Healing is a process, but it's accessible and available. Brokenness is a beautiful thing, and the healing that comes with it is oh so sweet.

I leave you now with a link to the music video I'm currently listening to. It's not really related to healing, but sort of... regardless, my friend Tim is incredibly talented, you should check him out. Confession, I had a huge crush on him a million years ago when I was a freshman in high school.

Sorry I missed midnight again, friends. Until tomorrow!