Popped Out of Place

Have you ever felt the pain of a pulled muscle or an injury that affected your daily life?

Sadly, I injured myself while running about two weeks ago.  ...I know!  You're shocked!  I've told no one but my husband about this...

I'm not really sure what happened, but I strained something...pulled something...or popped something out of place in my hip.  It wasn't horribly bad, but it did cause a dull pain that I felt every time I walked.

Did that stop me from running?  NO WAY!!!  :) 

Running is such a stress release for me--it makes me feel so much better about myself!  There was NO way I was going to stop running, even with a slight injury. 

So despite the pain, I kept running.  About a week went by and the pain was unfortunately getting worse...to the point where I was finding myself limping because of the severe pain.  I was becoming concerned that it might be noticeable to others.  See, up to this point, I had told no one about this.  Last Wednesday night at church, I did my best to hide any clue that my hip was hurting me.  I didn't want anyone to notice.  I mean, it was just a dull pain, right?

And I think I did a great job of hiding it....that is, until later that night.  As I tucked in my son for bed, he looked at me and said, "Are you limping?"

"Um........maybe......," I responded hesitantly.  I then explained how my hip felt weird...almost as if something needed to be popped back into place.  From there I then demostrated all the stretches I had been using as an attempt to fix this pain in my hip.

As I did this, suddenly I heard a loud POP and I literally felt something move in my hip.  And not just me...my son heard it too!

Instant relief. 

Since this realization thrilled me, I started to jump up and down and run in place in his room, demonstrating how I could suddenly do this without pain.  I do believe my son was happy to see his crazy mom leave his room that night.....

But I had reason to be happy!  I could walk with only minimal pain!  No more sharp pains throbbing through my body!  God had taken what was out of line and placed it back in place!

It has been almost a week since then.  I can still feel a dull pain in my hip.....BUT....the pain is less and less every day.  It's as if my body is healing from having something out of place for so long.

And have I stopped running at all during this?  You guessed it....NOPE I've continued to run!  In fact, my hip feels BETTER when I run!  Each and every day it feels better and better.

So as I was running the other day, I started thinking about this whole situation.....and God showed me a very awesome spiritual application!

When we sin...when we get out of God's will...it's like our lives become "popped out of place".  We don't function as we should because we aren't in complete obedience.  And this sin will cause "pain" in our lives.

But.......................................once we repent, God takes that sin and washes us clean.  He then "pops" the displaced joint back into place.  He puts us back together so we can function appropriately!

However--and this is VERY IMPORTANT--

...............even though God "pops" us back into place, that does not mean that we are free from the consequences of our sin.

Just as I still feel pain from the joint that was out of place, we also will feel the results of our sin....even after we repent.  For example, if we are addicted to alcohol, we will have to endure the recovery process after we stop drinking.  If we lied to someone, we will have to deal with the results of this dishonesty.  If we acted out in anger, we will have to clean up the mess we made.  If we hurt someone, we will have to deal with the consequences.

And this is where it is VITAL to keep moving forward.  Running every day, despite the pain, has actually helped my body to heal. 

The affects of our sin will try to hold us back.  The enemy will try to make us feel unworthy....
incapable...
inadequate...

The enemy would want us to wallow in our guilt.

But God is calling us to MOVE FORWARD! 

Move forward out of the sin.  Move forward past the guilt.  Move forward and work through the consequences of our sin.  Move foward to get rid of that sin.

It may be painful for a short time, but God WILL heal us as we step out in faith!

Keep running the race.  Keep moving forward!