Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!
Holly Mueller started this inspiring roundup of writing about out spiritual journey. She tweeted the theme: Patience.
It’s raining. Again. This happens almost every afternoon. It’s rather soothing if you don’t have to go to the bank, the grocery store, and the post office, but these errands happen. Rain happens. Patience doesn’t always happen.
Patience is a hard won skill. As a young teacher, I was not very patient. I got angry. I would yell. This embarrasses me now. Patience comes with age and for me, patience came after severe pain.
When I was 34 years old, I turned over in bed and blew a disc in my neck. The pain was unbearable, like a blow torch through my shoulder. Muscle spasms throbbed. I lost strength in my right arm. My thumb through my elbow became numb. An MRI showed a herneated disc at C-5. Surgery.
Having surgery of any kind brings death closer and makes it more real. I had three young daughters at the time. I cried and prayed. I lay in bed on pain medication and my mind would play with me. I felt crazy.
The spinal surgery worked. The herneation was removed. Healing came. In the process of healing, patience visited me. I somehow became calmer. Little things did not bother me as much. I found life had a deeper purpose.
I believe in the resurrection. In our lives, we experience many deaths and resurrections. Through each one, God teaches us a new lesson. The lesson of pain and surgery was patience. I may not be out dancing in the rain, but I can look to the wet grey sky and praise God. I know the importance of patience, of kindness, of love.
Oh Margaret, that story about surgery moved me! It’s scary!! You took that and used it for God. I love that! I also love that you and I both shared the same verse: Romans 12:12.
Thanks for sharing this story, Margaret. I love the idea of life having many deaths and resurrections. That’s a wonderful way of looking at beginnings and endings. I also love that we learn lessons during those times. Like Michelle, I love that you shared the same verse. It’s so perfect for today.
My favorite line is that “patience is a hard won skill”. Your pose is beautiful, and a good reminder for me to be patient with myself, and allow the victories of patience to visit me.
I have never had surgery but my husband has had two back surgeries and I do think that time was a lesson on patience for both of us. God does use these deaths and resurrections as lessons for us, but only if we have the patience to listen and the faith to trust. I love the thought of “learning to dance in the rain.”