PT and the Holy Spirit
In the year since my last post, I have had my other shoulder joint replaced. It was six weeks in an immobilizer, which looks like a cross between a hockey goalie’s gear and a medieval torture device, designed to hold my arm in the appropriate position until my bones grew around the new titanium mechanism that will allow me to use my right arm again without pain. For those six weeks all the work of moving that arm was done by my physical therapist. I just had to lay or sit while she gently adjusted my rib cage and carefully maneuvered my arm into positions I was not allowed to attempt on my own. My shoulder itself now has good range of motion in passive mode.
But now comes the hard work of regaining strength, convincing the muscles they can do something. The first week out of captivity I was allowed to carry my cell phone. Ooooo! The next week, it was a cup of coffee. Talk about baby steps! It was still more comfortable to write and eat with my left hand!
The harder work is to break the bad habits of a year or more of making do with a joint that groaned and clunked when I gave hugs, bouncing over bone spurs that grew to compensate for the lack of cartilage. (It was not a pretty sound.) During that last few months before surgery, I could still use the shoulder, but with some pretty strange contortions, and thanks to the gracious gift from Papa God of relief from pain after a brother at church prayed for me. My dear genius husband even 3-D printed a device I could use to reach my left armpit with deodorant. Not only do the muscles need to be rebuilt, but my brain must be rewired, trained away from these old patterns… Kind of like taking thoughts captive, or disciplining ourselves for godliness.
My physical therapist reminds me of the Holy Spirit who is both architect and engineer, the power and the cheerleader of the changes God is trying to make in my life: Sometimes gentle, sometimes severe, but always thinking of the growth that needs to happen, the changes that are looked for, and the circumstances required to generate the desire for progress.
Her gentle hand just so on my back, “Use these muscles,” sounds like “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
“How ya doing? I see those faces.” Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you. (1Peter 5:7)
“Are you feeling that? Is it too much?” Have a sane estimate of yourself. (Romans 12:3)
“A little farther. Keep that elbow in.” Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4:6)
Put off the old man; put on the new. (Colossians 3:9,10)
It’s always been a cooperative process. The biggest, hardest work is done first, by God. We bring our bit as a response to His mighty acts. I have heard said recently, “Without God we can’t. Without us He won’t.” We are always a work in progress growing to be more like Jesus especially as we are…
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
0 Comments