Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

Okay – you’ve done it. You have finally reached the point where backwards doesn’t count anymore. At last, you’ve firmly decided to do something radically different with your life no matter how damaged you undoubtedly feel or how heavy your circumstances might actually weigh.

I can vividly recall how I felt the day after I had decided to live differently. Full of grim and vigor, I was fiercely determined to make some long-lasting changes. I had reached the point where my old ways of living felt like they were killing me.

For years, the experts had tried to help me out of my brokenness, and for some reason, their efforts, combined with mine, had not totally freed me from the snare of the trapper.

The more I had listened to the sound advice of others, including medical experts, the more it seemed as if I had more to do to reach the point of becoming better. And it was like a mirage because I no longer recognized what better really looked like anymore. Chronic pain and morbid obesity and inner struggles about my purpose cleverly eluded my abilities to make things better.

It felt like I was holding on to a bag of leftovers about myself. In a sense, I thought I would have to live in some form of denial to compensate for my weaknesses. In other words, to walk meant that I had to limp; to feel better meant that I had to hide behind the lies about my unfortunate circumstances; to live by faith meant that I had to deny parts of who I was, and so forth.

Regardless, I had shown fortitude. Basically it was my way of demonstrating brute strength against self-deterioration, trying just about every conceivable exercise about self-improvement, pain-mediation, weight loss and spiritual healing known to man. In the end, the results were minimal with no evidence of sustainable pain relief or return to functional normalcy.

You might relate to the feeling of starting over, hoping to attain some level of improvement, then eventually failing, and then again repeating the process over and over again without having any real success. Things that once came easy, such as simple tasks, low-level physical exercise and keeping to a simple diet plan now had become insurmountable obstacles.

During the middle of trying to make better changes, when you think you can’t do them, then this is what usually happens. But more discouraging is when you don’t even attempt to make changes because your pain hurts you too much. I hesitate to elaborate about the darker sides of brokenness.

Nonetheless, at this very moment, you’re where I was nearly three and a half years ago. You’ve reached that place where resolve is born from the inside out.

Practically speaking for me, I decided to go against the grain of my urges. The process started out slowly. Instead of choosing the short-term fix for pain relief by constantly taking medications, or losing around 5-10 pounds instead of 50 or more, or settling for 8 hours of couch time as opposed to walking on the treadmill, I opted to get out of my unhealthy mindset though my body went in to a tantrum.

Although I’ve always appreciated various systematic and fairly reliable ways to handle painful affliction, I remember when I crossed over from thinking too small to dreaming much bigger. And the odd thing is that I knew I could no longer rely on self, of any form, to overcome the things of self. It had to be done more powerfully through God.

Today is the beginning place to start your new life. Albeit, just getting here has already been a tumultuous journey. This place where you’ve planted your feet is rock solid, giving you the necessary support to experience a redemptive life of self-discovery and ultimate purpose.

Keep up with these blogs about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness to help you to work out the kinks about moving from the old ways of living to uncovering the hidden power which lies deep within you.

To your health,