I’m not sure what I did to injure my left knee recently, but it has become rather painful. Having had very good experiences with chiropractic care in the past, I decided to see whether a new, highly recommended chiropractor in town could help me.
Chiropractors diagnose and treat neuromuscular irregularities, primarily through manual adjustments and spinal manipulations. They have developed many ingenious methods to reduce pain and restore healthy functioning to ailing bodies.
I’ve had three sessions with her so far, and I’m very glad I made the decision.
I am entering an especially intense period in my life as I launch my historical novel and travel widely to stand before people and talk about it. It seems wise to get my body in optimal condition now.
Healthy bodies withstand both good and bad kinds of stress better than unhealthy ones. I want optimal resilience to handle whatever comes my way.
Though it was a sore knee that motivated me to set the first appointment, I quickly realized that my visits to Dr. Cori are about much more than my knee. They are about restoring proper alignment and function to my body, head to toe.
I understand that the recovery of my knee depends on the health of my spine and the complex neuromuscular communication system connected to it. Zooming out even more, I realize that my whole being is subject to myriad external physical and psychological stressors, necessitating activation of systems of maintenance, regeneration, healing, and rest.
Life brings a lot of wear and tear to both body and soul, and shifts us out of alignment with the optimal way God designed it to function.
The metaphoric reference to our spiritual pain, growth, and healing does not escape me.
God’s design of the human being is the most miraculous and complex of all of his creations. When I pray or counsel with people experiencing pain or illness, physical or emotional, I often encourage them to consider not only what is going wrong. I help them take inventory and give thanks and praise for what is working well, while they find relief for their acute issue.
On the physical level, look at the wondrous interlocking design of the spine, pelvis, hips, and rib cage, for example. I marvel at its magnificent complexity. It protects vital organs and holds the torso together.
Most beautifully, while it is strong and durable, it is amazingly flexible. Its joints and ligaments are strong enough to withstand enormous pressure and maintain balance, yet flexible enough to bend in all directions. It allows us to dance, to praise, to bow in worship.
When we are sick or injured, God holds us together while the body does what it is equipped to do: heal itself. The heart pumps, the lungs inflate, the blood carries life-giving nutrients and filters waste for the intestines and kidneys to excrete.
Feet work especially hard, carrying us to our destinations. And hands are the most useful, versatile tools ever created to assist us in a thousand ways every single day. We take these things for granted, don’t we? Especially when we are so focused on our pain.
What about the soul?
While we may be enduring painful and fearful trials, God holds our souls together as we persevere toward freedom.
He brings us people to love and encourage us. He gives a peace that defies explanation. He speaks truth in the measure that we can receive it.
Sometimes he ministers best when he surprises us with beauty. An inquisitive cardinal comes to sit on the windowsill, or a piece of music enters our ears and trickles down like oil to our aching heart.
As Jon Eldredge has pointed out, in times of intense grief and emotional pain, “only beauty helps.”
Despite the brilliance of God’s created order, systems do break down because we have inherited the incurable disease of sin and mortality. No matter how devoted we are to God, how steadfast, strong, and faithful, in the end, we are exceedingly fragile and heading for the eventual breakdown and death of our bodies.
What gives us hope, endurance, and courage is maintaining a strong and intimate connection to our Creator and Healer.
God offers himself to us freely, but he does not compel us to respond to his invitation. In this, we are free to choose. I believe, and the Bible plainly states, that only fools would choose otherwise.
When we respond to God daily in faith, he proceeds with his ongoing, individualized course of treatment, and the treatment lasts for the rest of our natural lives.
If we submit fully to his wise interventions, the Sovereign Lord daily adjusts our attitudes, our emotions, and our priorities. Sometimes there is a dramatic pop, but often progress is subtler and gentler.
Either way, God is infinitely wise and kind. As the potter places his hands on the clay and the chiropractor places her hand on my back, he touches us, injured and vulnerable vessels, and sets right what is crooked or crippling.
We mustn’t suspend treatment. If we quit the treatment plan prematurely, we are likely to regress, wax worse and worse, and become bent, brittle, and broken.
Are we not wise to allow our expert Physician to make every adjustment and alignment of our bodies and souls that he determines for our good?
