Early this week my lower back popped, some inward tension
caused it to explode in pain, twisting and curling my hips, shoulders, even the
arches of my feet.  Monday it was
bad, Tuesday worse and I started wearing a back brace.  By Wednesday I knew I was in serious trouble
and texted a friend, “Do you have any muscle relaxers?  Ibuprofen isn’t cutting it.”

She replied, “No. 
Maybe you should go to the doctor.”

“I know,” I said, “but they’ll make me get a scan and
probably go for physical therapy.” 

My husband had my vehicle that day and a trip to the Dr. would
involve a ride in his rattly old pickup truck, waiting, and then a second trip
for a scan of my back.  Walking and
standing brought real pain and the thought of such a trip was
overwhelming. Instead of heading to the Dr., I pulled out all of my back
care tricks.  I rubbed pungent Tiger Balm
on my clenched muscles, wrapped my brace tight and threw back 1000 mg. of
Ibuprophen. Then, I laid down on the
floor, flat on my back, which seems to be one of the simplest ways to relax and
realign my muscles.   

This is what I know I need to do when my back gets bad.  But there’s so little I can do in that prone
position.  I can’t write, can’t be
online, can’t clean, cook or do laundry. 
I can read for brief periods of time until my arms grow weary, I can
scroll through Facebook on my phone. 
It’s humbling, it’s frustrating.

But I laid on my back as much as I could on Wednesday, I
took a two hour nap and did slow, gentle stretches.  By Thursday things were a little better, by
Friday another bit improved.

Every time this happens (once, twice, three times a year?) I
think, “I have to work on my abs, my back needs more support.  It wouldn’t hurt to lose a little weight
either.”  But these thoughts arrive at a
time when I’m in too much pain to embrace them, by the time I’m up and able I’m
too busy with life to make good on my own commitments. 

And so the cycle repeats.

//

I’ve heard a lot of talk about healing this past week in the
wake of the election.  “The
time for arguments is past, the time for healing is begun,” the rhetoric
goes.  I believe that’s what we heard
four years ago too and four years before that also.  Yet we continue to run ourselves, every
four years, through a gauntlet of vitriol, hate and ideological (as well as
actual) violence.  I’m not surprised that the nation of America is trapped in this cycle, but I’m dismayed that the church in America is also. 

Something about this repeated cycle tells me we’re not
really that interested in healing after all, but more interested in rearming
and preparing for the next round like boxers gasping for breath, dripping sweat
in the corner of the ring between rounds.

How often can we keep repeating this injury before the whole
body is beyond repair?  How long can we
limp along?

Despite chronic and sometimes debilitating back pain for ten
years I don’t take muscle relaxers because I need the pain to tell
me to make a change.  Maybe it’s time we
as a country starting listening to our pain and the pain of those around
us.  Maybe it’s time we stop rushing to
heal when we’ve yet to identify the wound, to cleanse it and seek amends.  Maybe its time the church took the lead in this activity.

//

I’ve been thinking about this passage in Isaiah 1 this week,

“Hear, O
heavens, and listen, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: I reared children and
brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. ³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its
master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. ⁴Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly
estranged! ⁵Why do you seek further beatings? Why do you
continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head, there
is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they have not
been drained, or bound up, or softened with oil.”

The prophet
calls creation to bear witness against the people of God who, though reared by
God have become “utterly estranged.”  I love the prophet’s use of
image after image to convey the absolute discord between what is and what
should be.  According to the prophet, the
people of Israel lack the basic common sense of an ox or donkey, they’re
utterly tone-deaf, wracked with delusion. 

Isaiah is addressing the nation of Israel – God’s people – and so the accurate parallel
to us is to hear this as a word for the church, those who identify themselves
as the people of God today.  What I hear
in this passage is a pleading, lovesick God seeking to speak sense into a
people who no longer see, no longer comprehend the peril of their
situation. 

//

I’m convicted
this week by my own failure to comprehend the reality of my situation
physically in regard to my aching back. 
And I’m prayerfully wondering the degree to which I should feel
convicted of a failure to understand the reality of my situation spiritually,
by which I mean, as the prophets always meant – in regards to righteousness and
justice.

Isaiah isn’t
asking people to come back to church, in fact a few verses down he slams their
religious practices altogether.  He isn’t
asking them to pray more or attend Bible study more faithfully.  God, through the prophet, is calling people
to a faith that bears fruit in the arenas of justice and righteousness,
particularly on behalf of the poor and marginalized as Isaiah 1:17 makes clear. 

//

This week has
revealed the depth of my back issues, I would be foolish to continue to ignore
them just because they lessen for a day, a week, a month.

This election
has revealed the depth of our issues as a nation, but more importantly as a
people who claim to seek God’s face.  We
would be foolish to ignore them even if they lessen for a day, a week, a month.

Let us not
hurry toward healing that is merely hiding.

Let us listen
to voices around us, but particularly those of the poor, the weak, the
marginalized.

Let us pray and
examine our hearts, where is our own justice, our own righteousness lacking?

Let us seek to
love not merely in words, but in deeds.    

*   *   *

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Rafflecopter last week.  The winners of a free copy of “Chicken Scratch: Stories of Love, Risk & Poultry” are (drum roll . . . ) AMY HERTZLER and JACOB LONG. Congratulations!  I’ll be emailing you soon for a mailing address.

 *   *   *

Welcome to the #SmallWonder link-up.  

What if we chose to deliberately look for small moments of wonder, the small sparks of presence, of delight or sorrow, of true humanity in which we meet God?  

That’s my proposal – that we gather here each week to share one moment of Wonder from each of our days.  You’re invited to link-up a brief post about a small moment of wonder.  Don’t worry if your post is too long, too short, or not just right – you’re welcome to come as you are.  

While you’re here, please do take a look around and encourage at least one other blogger with a comment.  Thanks for being part of our community!