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Chiropractic Parable
About 5 years ago, I fell going down the deck steps
and landed square on my tailbone. It was very painful and took a long time to heal completely. What I didn't know was that when I fell, it caused my whole spine to be knocked out of place. I wasnt aware of it until just now, 5 years later. Maybe it was that I just didnt recognize the symptoms or that I chose to ignore them. I just now realized that something wasnt right in my neck. I could feel that it was out of place and was feeling some discomfort. I went to a chiropractor and he was able to detect the area of pressure. He also took x rays of my spine.
I wasn't planning to go back, because I wanted a quick fix and I felt relief after the first adjustment. But after a week went by, I felt it was back out of place again.
So I went in and they showed me my x-rays. He told me he could tell that 5-7 years ago something happened to me and ever since then, the problem has progressively gotten worse.
There are no quickfixes, I will have to let time and repeated adjustments retrain my spine so it will function properly and will enhance my entire body health.
As I thought about all this, I realized that this can also happen to us spiritually. Somewhere along the way, we made some bad choices and we began rely on something or someone other than the Lord.
We wonder why are arent able to hear from God. Could it be that the signal is pinched, when we turn to other things to meet our needs and not to Christ? For quite awhile we may go on, not experiencing alot consequences. We may have some symptoms along the way that are attempts of the Spirit to get us to realize we have a problem. Things just dont feel right in an area, we have lost our peace, and where is the joy we used to have in the Lord?
But it is much easier to just brush it off and igore these little symptoms. We can continue to medicate the symptoms with worldy pleasures to ease the discomfort we feel.
Eventually we come to a point where we are in enough discomfort that we admit we need help. We don't like to face the fact that we are in need of some long term care, and time spent with the Great Physician to realign our hearts once again. We are looking for that quick fix..
maybe we think..."oh a retreat will fix me up
or a missionary trip of some sort. Yes, these things help bring relief right away, but it doesn't end there.
We need to be still long enough for the Lord to mold us to a position where we can once again have an open channel to receive His grace and mercy as our source. Our old nature will try all sorts of other attempts of self effort to get relief :
" maybe if I just go to church more often
or just do more good works, teach more classes, just witness to more people."
what we really need is for our hearts to look to Him alone.
(Isaiah 30:15)
For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength." But you were not willing,
KJV.-says-
"In returning and rest" shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. (Isaiah 30:15)
Alot of my back and neck muscles are not used to the proper position and they resist the new alignment.
They need time and continued "repentance" to "return" them to the proper alignment. We also need to examine ouselves daily. When we see an area where our heart is drawn aside to something other than the Lord, we continually repent, and retrain our hearts to stay in line, and look to our Creator.
In (Matthew 3:8) John the baptist reminds us to:
Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance!
In (John 15:5) Jesus says:
I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in me while I abide in him produces much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.