Home is good.  One day at home helped move me in the right direction.  I’m sure most of you wouldn’t believe I over did it.

Do any of you know how long can a guy live on chocolate milk, Chick-fil-A, and strawberry ice cream?

I am trying hard to wean myself off of the pain killers.  Doing that went okay for a while!  I guess my body hasn’t quite glued itself back together yet.

I’ve never understood the lure of drugs whether illegal drugs or the misuse of prescriptions.  I guess that as the pain killers numb the pain in my body so they numb the pain of someone’s heart and soul.  I think I know a much better remedy to overcome the pain of your heart.  Feeling like this all the time would be a tough way to live.

God comes through the smallest of things.  I got an email from a guy who has himself been through a really tough year.  I have prayed for him many times and have no doubt he has been praying for me.  At the close of the email was a Biblical reference.  Apparently it was one of the few that I hadn’t memorized, so I had to look it up!  His reference was an encouragement, but being the “context” guy that I am, I went back and read the whole chapter.  And God came.

These three major challenges have taught me something that I can’t proof text from a verse in scripture, but I have found to be experientially true. 

Major traumas have a way of bruising you more than physically.  They bruise your heart and soul.  It can be a major health issue like surgery or a heart attack, or it can be a major life issue like the break of a relationship, losing someone you love, losing your job, illness of a loved one, moving somewhere you didn’t want to move.  It could be a lot of things.

What I have found for me is that after all three physical traumas, it has taken some time for my body to heal, but it has also taken some time for my heart to heal, too.   It’s like your heart and soul takes a lick and is bruised, just like your arm does when it takes a lick.  And a bruised arm doesn’t work as well as a healthy arm.  Neither does a bruised heart.

Maybe the pain killers numb your capability to feel anything.  That could be part of it, but I think it is far more than that.  You can hear that same feeling over and over in the psalms when the psalmist feels like he has been abandoned by God.  You may feel that way today. 

Let me assure you, God never abandons us.  He is always there, whether we feel Him or not.   What happens in these struggles of life is that God deepens our faith.  We learn to trust Him more.  We learn to see things with a far greater scope.    It takes the “me” out of the center and puts Him on the throne. 

And what I have found is that when we learn to walk by faith, those precious feelings return.  If you are in a tough spot in life, do not lose heart, my friend.  Trust Him in your hour of need.  He will lift you up.  I know for sure that He will.  The sweet peace of Jesus will flood your heart once again.  Until He does, trust Him.  Stay in His Word.  He hears every word spoken in prayer, and every unspoken word of your heart.

Break though….Lord Jesus.  

By the way, Teresa may try to slip some of these narcotics in my chocolate milk after the kind things I said about her in yesterday’s blog.  She said it must have been the pills!

Thanks for reading.  There is healing in the writing.