Health and Strength Can Come When You Let Go

There are a lot of feelings currently swirling around in most of our hearts—joy, pain, sadness, anger, grief, anxiety… you name it, someone we love is attempting to process it. These past several months I chose to retreat, if you will, and hide under the shelter of God’s love for me. Everything became a bit too much to take in, and because I’m still learning how to listen to the stress signals my body sends me, my health took a big hit.

I began having panic attacks that lasted for hours and nighttime stomach aches more often than I care to acknowledge. The more I allowed my faith to yield to the emotions I was trying my best to honor, the worse I physically felt. I finally realized I wasn’t processing anything, I was merely recapping all of the high points of my most recent painful events, therefore making my injuries more severe. I was the one pouring salt into my wounds. I was the one delaying my healing. And I was the one who had to decide to stop the cycle and ask God to teach me how to focus on my heart and my healing.

In 3 John 1:2 the author writes, “I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.” I believe when John wrote this to his friend Gaius, it was a gentle and loving reminder to release whatever he was holding to the Lord because it would keep his spirit strong and his body healthy. So many of us have experienced the opposite of this prayer—functioning in weakness and fatigue. We must consistently give what we pick up over to the Lord. It’s not the journey that makes us sick, but what we hold onto along the way.

As I continue to regain my strength and healing, here's my reminder to you: Pause and offload everything you’ve been carrying and give it to God. Pray for yourself and others, and ask God to teach you how to listen to your body. You don’t have to be super-human. Sometimes life is hard and you need time to refocus and detox, and that’s a-ok.