The End of Your Rope

I can be a very goal-oriented, scratch that, I am a very goal-oriented person. Something I am becoming more and more aware of as the years go by.

Enter some health issues in my life and the whole goal oriented personality of mine is taken for a loop. With everything else in life, I see something I want to do, I lay out a plan to do it and I begin working my way to the finish line. Health stuff is not like that. You can lay out your best plans but sometimes an answer or solution simply uncovers a sleuth of more questions and you feel like you’re starting over.

I picture it like a long rope that you are trying to find the other end of, some people’s health journey is a short rope, they pick up one end, follow the rope a little way and find it around a corner. For others, we pick up that rope and end up climbing trees, mountains, digging into mines, through rivers, lakes, back around to where we started and then still find more rope.

I am sure you’ve heard the phrase “healing is not linear”, and it really isn’t. Oh man it is NOT. Yet in all of it, there is a journey, the longer your rope, the more knowledge you have to help the next person and maybe they won’t have to search around quite as long to get the answers you hunted for. Whether you are walking through emotional, mental or physical healing, the journey holds value. And you do start to heal and start to find answers.

Sure, I would have loved in 2012 if I was told do this, and then this and voila! The nodules will go away and you are all healed up and can move on in life. But that didn’t happen, it has taken time and many trials and of late I have seen greater healing and progress. Throughout the process I had to over and over choose to embrace the journey (and sometimes just curl up and cry too), do what I can to find answers, heal and keep moving forward….and then just rest. It is tempting to think “I wish i would have known/done/not done”, but the reality is life is still happening and you do the best you can and still live and enjoy life. This is where my faith has kept me. When I am all out of ideas, energy and the drive to keep trying to heal, God is there to give me the next step, encourage me and assure me (for the millionth time) that He is working ALL things together for good as I love him.

The Passion Translation says it like this:

²⁸ So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.

My soul sighs with relief every time I am reminded of this promise. Yes, my goal is still to continue healing and finding answers, but the greater goal is that my faith would deepen, that I would know-really know that my God is good and only has good for me, regardless of what I face. There is peace there, there is hope there.

Regardless of where you are at, be encouraged to keep moving forward, take that small step, pick up that little more rope. Good will come of it. So, cheers to finding the End of Our Ropes, that somehow each of our journeys will quicken the healing process for another.