PT for for Every Pain

PT for Everything

I’m the girl that sits in meetings Googling acronyms to help myself hack through the acronym jungle. Acronyms are like weeds in today’s world, so I’ll just go ahead and decode this one for you right now and save you the trouble: PT means physical therapy in this conversation. 

Physical therapy is what you get after you hurt your knee/shoulder/elbow/ankle for the fifth time and a doctor thinks you need help in making it healthy and useful again. And incidentally, useful without so much pain.

Physical therapists prescribe movements, exercises, hot, cold, various analgesics, and limits on all of these…with the goal of getting you back to pain-free use of the limb or body part you’ve offended so badly.  Physical therapy requires lots of repetitions of seemingly mundane movements, all designed to help you.

I've heard these therapists sometimes use devices of various kinds to stretch, smooth, and relax the hurt places. Only these hurt sometimes too. It takes a little bit of faith to let someone hurt you to try to make you not hurt.  I guess pain just IS sometimes.

Pain happens to more than just elbows and knees though.  Physical pain is not the only pain that shows up in life, sad to say. I think I’d rather stick to knees and shoulders and all that. Pain comes with loss and the greatest loss is death.  Death of friendships. Loss of jobs. Death of dreams and plans. And the physical death of loved ones, family members.  Family is a broad range, but when that death hits close to home with a parent, child, or spouse, the pain is almost unmanageable. Unmanageable pain like the shoulder that’s pulled all out of normal and hurts no matter what you do for it. Hurts so that’s nearly all you can think about. That kind of pain.

PT for this kind of loss is available; like the PT for the body, it’s painful on the way but it brings good results.  Like PT for the shoulder, it requires deliberate, diligent action on your part, even when it hurts.

Did your most precious grandparent just die? Thank God for giving you that person. Thank Him for all the good times you had with him or her. Thank Him for the example set for you and your family. Thank Him for the sweet, sweet memories. And go ahead and list all those memories in your thanks!

Is it your spouse that died? Thank God extravagantly for the good gift of marriage. (No marriage is perfect, OK? That’s a “given.”) But marriage itself is good, almost magical the way two hearts are joined as one. Thank Him for the good times; thank Him for the times that weren’t so good, but motivated you to seek the Lord, thus knowing Him better. Thank Him for the companionship, for the fun, for the challenges met together.

Your child? Such grief at the death of a child. Everything is out of order in this one. But were you blessed to have this son or daughter for a week? Thank God for that. A year? Thank Him! Some people never have the blessing of a new life created from theirs. Did you enjoy the blessing of your child for a few decades? Such great grace from Father God to share these kiddos with us! Thank Him! Thank him for the sweetness, the wonder of every stage of your child’s life that you were privileged to enjoy. List them, and thank Him for all of them. Thank Him for all you learned, for how you grew in your faith just by having this child in your life for a season. Be generous, abundant in your thanks to God for the privilege of parenthood.

I’m convinced that giving thanks is the PT for a grieving, broken heart. Yes, it hurts and brings more tears, even when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more tears. And then it hurts again the next time. But it also heals and brings peace to a heart that’s nearly sick with grief.  Give thanks in the midst of all grief, all loss. Thank God for His great grace, for His love, kindness, and generosity to you. Thank Him that He is sovereign ruler over all. Thank Him for the hope of heaven and the presence of Jesus our Savior. Give thanks, always. In all things.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.