Healing.
One of the initial struggles associated with the sprained ankle sitch was healing.
Whether the injury would send me home from the race.
Whether I’d be able to be effective in ministry.
Whether or not I’d be healed.
And if so, what would that look like?
I still haven’t gone to a doctor, and given the treatment options I did have in the village, I’m pretty sure my foot shouldn’t’ve healed as quickly as it has.
I prayed faithfully over it each night and did do the things I was able to to try to treat it. Fast forward to about a week or so after the initial injury. I was still babying it but the pain, swelling and bruising was significantly improved.
Fast forward again to PVT. There was still minimal pain when we would walk a lot or I would sit in certain positions but it wasn’t enough to be a distraction.
Fast forward again to Thailand. Our squad has been on a wholistic health kick which includes starting to work out again. The first few days I couldn’t run because of the pain which was really frustrating. I’ve never really had an injury that stopped me from doing things I wanted to do. This month I am on an ATL team and we get together in the morning to pray and then the evening to debrief the day. I asked for prayer that morning for healing specifically. That particular morning I’d chosen to run about 3 miles even though it was painful for my foot (I can be pretty stubborn) and I was back to being in pain after that. My team prayed and my ankle went from probably a 4/10 on the pain scale to nothing. It felt normal. The Lord healed my ankle in that moment.
I still have moments where the pain starts to come back and I have to remember and acknowledge the healing I’ve received and refuse to have that be taken away.
Now there’s another side to this… At the awakening one of my teammates gave me some pretty convicting feedback. I had chosen to compete in a competition that included running and afterwards admitted that my ankle was hurting again. Juju, lovingly hit me over the head with some wisdom. She said something along the lines of,
“I want to challenge you to use wisdom when deciding where your physical boundaries are. I appreciate that you push yourself and don’t complain but sometimes you should think for an extra second before making decisions that may impact that foot.”
Girl. Yes. I definitely tend toward the side of push through and needed to hear that.
There’s something to be said about that wisdom in caring for injuries and not pushing the healing I have received. I’m not invincible. I needed to be reminded of that.
Healing, is a weird, cool, sometimes confusing, awesome gift and there’s still so much of it that I don’t understand.
To recap on any of my prior experiences with healing see:
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/healing-hands-in-honduras
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/healing-part-2
Prequels to the “end of the sagas”
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/injuries-in-india
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/this-freakin-ankle
Dad, I’m good (:
p.s. for everyone who’s worried, here’s a pic of team tidal Wave livin it up even with my bum foot!
