Miles To Go

Fear and Pain For those of you who do not know me, my other job, when I am not writing devotionals and taking care of babies in the church nursery, is physical therapist. In my profession we have a common motto: Pain is a Liar.  Often times pain is not coming from the area we think it is. For instance, a rotator cuff injury can hurt in the elbow instead of the shoulder; a disc injury in the low back could cause pain in the leg; kidney damage can cause pain in the back, etc. This is why medicine isn't straight forward. Pain is a liar and often leads us down a dangerous path away from what we need most.  As I was reflecting on this today and our current societal situation I realize that fear and pain go hand in hand. My clinical specialty is chronic pain. Chronic pain is often not the result of direct physical injury, but more of the brain's way of manifesting internal pain in an external way. This doesn't mean the pain is not real, it absolutely is, after all pain is made in...

Be Still We are currently in an unprecedented time of uncertainty in our world and many people are struggling more than ever with fear and anxiety.  I myself have struggled most of my life with worry and anxiety completely separate of a global pandemic.  I am a very type A individual and really struggle with trying to control outcomes in my life as much as I am able. As a result, I really struggle with the concept of “giving it up to God.” However, I desperately see the need for it in my daily life, which is why Psalm 46:10 has been my life verse. “Be still, and know that I am God!”  Be Still... Be Still...     I tried to take 30 seconds after writing that word to simply be still. But I can hear my older boys wrestling upstairs and wonder if I should break it up. I hear my youngest son in the next room beginning to worry over something and wonder if I should step in before he has a meltdown. I know the yard needs to be mowed today and I wonder how long it will t...

Courage Courage and bravery are often considered some of the greatest character traits that a person could possess. However did you know that you can not be brave if you aren't first afraid? Courage is defined as strength in the face of pain or grief and the ability to do something that frightens one.  Pain and grief and fear can present themselves in different ways for different people. It may be a personal illness or that of a child, it may be the loss of a loved one, it may be the loss of a way of life or job, or even fear of the unknown. However you define pain and grief, everyone is experiencing it in some way at this time in our lives. It may be a job that is uncertain, it may be fear of illness that is knocking on all of our doors, it may be loss of identity as we shelter in place and the life you knew has taken on a different face. Fear makes us feel weak, but without that fear we can not persevere. James 1:4 tells us “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mat...

Peace The song Peace by Bethel Music has been on my mind and in my heart all week since I first heard it in church this Sunday. I felt God pulling me all week to write about Peace. The Hebrew word for peace, šālôm, is most often translated by the Greek word, eirēnē,  which refers to the idea of totality or completeness, success, fulfillment,  harmony, security and well being. As I sit here staring at the meaning of peace, I am taken aback by how difficult our world makes it to realize these things. It feels often impossible to feel total and complete, when the next task is always knocking at our door; to feel safe without locks on our door; to feel well being when the media tells us all the ways we should be different. How to we have feelings of harmony and security when our news is filled with heartache, fear, and devastation? The answer is simple, we cannot find peace in the world, we can only find peace with God. In John 16:33 Jesus tells us, “I have told you these things, ...

Grace I really struggled with this devotional today. It took me longer than most any other I have written. I found grace to be such a difficult concept that my thoughts would come out very unorganized and I would stare at the screen praying for God to bring my words into the focus that I needed, but then finally realized that I should give myself a little grace in the spirit of the devotional, and just let the thoughts flow. It is in the spirit of giving myself a little grace that I give you today's devotional. I truly hope that you can see the beauty of God's grace in today's writing. I have been pouring over every scripture related to grace this morning. As I find them I type them out so they are all in front of me in order to help me make connections as I write. I have 3 full pages of bible verses in front of me. This is more than I found for courage, stillness, and strength. Over and over these verses are informing us that “In Him we have redemption through Hi...

As we neared the end of our time with the developmental preschool, I was finding myself frequently overcome with fear. In the preschool he was safe, loved, growing, thriving. He was getting speech and occupational therapy of a really high caliber. He was accepted by his peers and comfortable. His teachers, paraprofessionals, and therapists were not just people whose job it was to help our son, they became much like family. They would send text messages to tell me how Miles was doing or worried when he would regress and check in to see if things changed. Their love and caring for my son was more than I could ever have dreamed. The thought of losing them as a daily part of Miles' life was not only sad, but terrifying. How would he handle that transitions when even small transitions were a struggle for him? Would the next set of teachers and paraprofessionals and therapists have the same interaction with Miles or would we end up in one of the horror stories you read about online whe...