Range of Motion

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… (Philippians 3:7-9)

Today I went in for an appointment with my new neurologist.  I had set this appointment up in June of 2008, right after I moved from Minnesota to Florida.  I knew it would be important to start over with a new neurologist, so I set myself up with the nearest appointment I could get with someone who specialized in the field of neurology that I have struggled with most recently.

In 2006, I fought an uphill battle to find out why I was having so many physical problems.  It was so difficult because the tests did not reveal anything.  I was going from test to test, doctor to doctor, and no one could give me anything.  Eventually someone got to the bottom of it.  They found out I had a herneated disc in my neck and it was causing a lot of damage.  My neurologist was well aware of my situation and was pushing for things to be done as soon as possible.  I was being shoved  from from one surgeon to another, everyone turned me down for surgery.

It was a disheartening process.  God never gave up on me!  He had an army of believers who were all around me, supporting me with love, prayer, strength, meals, etc.  They were there to tend to my physical needs, as well as my emotional needs.  I know that I never would have made it through the this physical battle without them.  Eventually, God did find a surgeon who decided to do surgery on me January 31st of 2007.  He explained all the risks involved and later I had to go through a long recovery process.

Today, the pain, the search for a doctor, the surgery, the long recovery, and the aftermath of surgery all came flooding back to me in my doctor’s office.  I have had reminders here and there, when I’m reminded I can’t do something that I could do in the past before my surgery.  And just lately in the last 6 months, my neck has been reminding me with the pain it has been in.  But in that doctor’s office I was asked to do some routine exercises to see what my range of motion was.  The doctor asked me to move my head side to side, up and down, tilt back and forth, etc.  The doctor noticed there was a considerable difference in the decreased range of motion I had in my neck.  I remember being told this would happen after surgery and that I needed to do my stretches daily.  I remember being told I should use my TENS unit (an electrical impulse unit for my muscles around my neck) daily.  I remember a lot of things after today.  Why?  Because someone let me know that I did not have full range of motion in my neck.

That one statement has really struck me quite profoundly today.  In many ways it does not matter to me that I do not have full range of motion in my neck, but it does matter to me that I take good care of myself and do what the doctor has asked me to do. Especially when I know it will cause me to have migraines less frequently and live life on a daily basis with less pain.  The thing that strikes me more than the physical part of all this is the spiritual aspect.

What is my spiritual range of motion?

And how much of it do I lose daily, if I’m not in the Word learning who God is?  Do I lose range of motion if I’m focused too much on what other people are doing wrong and not enough on what God is doing right inside of me and others?  Am I losing spiritual range of motion when I talk too quickly and listen too slowly?  Do I lose range of motion when I let the world influence my decisions on life, instead of influencing the world with the Truth in my life?

Paul said it so well in Philippians,

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… (3:7-9)”

Everything is nothing compared to Christ.  In fact, when you look at the word rubbish and you compare it to the original Greek the word you will find is skubala which means dung, the excrement of animals.  Are you not willing to give up the dung in your life for the all surpassing greatness of God?  Do you want to be found in Christ, living out a life that has meaning?  Do you want to have full range of motion so you can see all that the Lord has for You?

Here are the things to do:

1.  Study the Word of God.

2.  Pray

3.  Join a church that preaches the Word of God.

4.  Small group – Be in fellowship with other believers!

5.  Share the gift of Jesus to those in need of a Savior!

Dear Father God, I pray that You would give me increased range of motion physically because I know by Your Son’s stripes I am healed.  Also, I pray spiritually my range of motion would be increased.  Please increase my wisdom of who You are and all I can be in You.  May I never stop learning and may I always be moldable.  I pray that my heart and my mind will never think they know too much for You, but may they always be open to grow in Your infinite knowledge!

Living with Better Range thanks to God,