A New Perspective

For as long as I can remember, I've had trouble with my right hip. During summer band camp in high school, I never finished out the week. By Thursday, I couldn't march -- and could barely walk. Through my adult life, it's been much the same. Traveling by plane, my right leg swells. A long day at an amusement park or hiking in the mountains always ends with hip pain so severe I can't even sleep on my right side.

My men on Apollo's Chariot

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about my "wonky leg" when another friend, a physical therapist, walked up. In ten seconds -- or less -- she commented, "Do you know your right leg is longer than your left leg?" (Yes... I do. Not a lot longer. Just a smidge, but she could see it.) She recommended that I put a lift in the heel of my left shoe. And I did. The first couple days, I developed pain in my left, lower back. Nothing serious -- muscle tightness. Then it was gone.

This past Saturday, we went to Busch Gardens. I expected the pain to return (we drove there 3.5 hours, walked 12 hours and drove home another 3.5 hours... a recipe for hip pain for sure!). Yet, the pain did not come. Nor did the swelling in my leg.

The kids patiently posing

My whole life, I've thought I was stuck with this bum leg. Not so bad I can't function, but something I've accommodated. I was so wrong! My friend saw it differently. She didn't look at the pain, she looked at the source. And now, I have no pain. WOW!

The same process is true for the pains of our hearts. I used to claim that I'm a yeller, because that's just the way my parents raised me. It's just who I am. Yet, I know that God is love. He wants me to train my kids in His love. Now when I yell, but I know it's my choice not to follow God's Word to speak the truth in love. And I apologize for yelling.

E-squared: Ernie and Ellie 

We can live day to day, managing the "pain" in our lives, or we can ask God to reveal the source of our pain AND ask His help to overcome. Satan wants to trick us into thinking that "this is just the way life is." When we do that, we give up on God's best for our lives.

God's word promises us that He has a plan for our lives, a plan to prosper us and not to harm us... a plan to give us hope and a future! Let's claim that plan by curing the cause of our heart pain and filling our hearts instead with God's love.

Feeling hopeless: Romans 15:13
Feeling lonely: Deuteronomy 31:6
Feeling anxious: Philippians 4:6-7
Feeling defeated: 2 Corinthians 4:8
Feeling grief: Psalm 23:4
Feeling worried: 1 Peter 5:7

God loves us. He wants the best for us. Ask Him to reveal the source of your pain and replace it with his love.

In Christian love,