THE THERAPY ROOM

A friend of mine recently had a traumatic experience. While at work, a dog bite took
off part of her finger. Weeks of pain, surgeries, casts, pills, anesthesia … and it still
wasn’t the end of the story. Her finger had gone into “shock mode”—any touch
brought on fresh pain. It seemed almost paralyzed.

Two months later, I accompanied her to the physiotherapy clinic for one of her weekly
sessions. By then, her finger had “petrified” from the trauma, and it would take many
more weeks of gentle flexing and motion exercises until it would be normal again.

As I sat there, I watched the other patients in the therapy room, stretching,
weightlifting, exercising. They were all different ages and had sustained varied
injuries, so the physiotherapists were coaching each through their own personal
program.

We all suffer blows at some stage in our lives—physical, mental, spiritual …
sometimes all three. When a crisis hits, our faith takes a blow, and we can go into
“shock mode,” where moving, let alone moving forward, feels impossible.

The therapy room reminded me how fragile we are. We depend on professionals to
help and guide us. We trust that they know what they’re doing, they know what our
body needs, and we surrender to the healing process.

In the same way, God wants to fortify our faith, mend our wounds, and soothe our
spirits, if we’ll let Him. “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He
rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he
rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles,
but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.” And He promised, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

We can’t always prevent the faith shakers from coming our way. That’s just life. But
it’s nothing to be afraid of. As long as we keep coming back to the therapy room to
God’s welcoming arms and the strength of His Word, we will find the comfort we
need, along with the power to heal and move again.