I have been going to physical therapy. If you have ever been before, you just sighed and shook your head. If you haven’t been before, you have no idea what that means! 

On my first day I entered with a whole list of things that needed help. There actually wasn’t a part of my body that didn’t need something. The consultation ensued, with many questions being asked, many points given to pain levels and range of motion, etc., and then the work began. The first thing they asked was, “Can you put your knees to your chest?” My question was “whose knees”, and “whose chest”, because it sure isn’t mine! I couldn’t even imagine doing such a maneuver. With a little help, ok maybe a lot of help, I successfully completed that task and when on to a whole list of others that I thought of at the time, “They are trying to kill me!”

Two days a week for several weeks I came and we did. We not only did the whole list we started with, but then we started adding things! They had me doing squats with a huge band that not only held my sumo wrestler weight, but was strong enough to hold me as I did squats and pulled myself up. I did it not just once, but several times! Two hours later, yes you heard me right, I was finally finished with the schedule of events for the day. At the end of each session I was then stretched by someone that had the education to do so. I had already been stretched mentally and physically. My “are you kidding attitude” was being stretched to, “Hey, watch this!” When asked to do ten reps of something, I would jokingly ask them if they wanted fifteen! The end of the session stretch moved my body in ways that I never dreamt possible, and I have to tell you, eventually, mind you I said eventually, it felt pretty darn good.

Finally my last day arrived. The place that I had thought was a torture chamber, had now become a place of healing. I had been stretched and pulled mentally and physically to a point that I had never thought possible. They had the knowledge and the know how to get this old body going once again, and in the process, they became my friends. Oh, I knew they always had my best interest at heart, but there were moments that I thought, “These people are nuts.”

I’ve been through some life adventures that have absolutely stretched me to the limits. If anyone would have told me what the outcome would have been, I would have said they were nuts. Things that I thought were going to kill me, ended up stretching me in so many ways for my own good. Just like the guys that gave me the final stretch of the day, God has the knowledge to know exactly what I need, to make me into the person he wants me to be. At times it seemed too much, but at the end of the day he had given me everything I needed to complete the task. More than once, just as I asked the PT folks, I asked Him, “Can we be done?” The answer was always the same, “In my time.”

I don’t know what all you are going through today that is stretching you to what you consider to be your ultimate limit. “Lord, I want to be done with this”, may be the cry of your heart. I had to learn to trust the folks in PT, just as I have learned to trust the one who loves me the most. I was never alone in the PT room, and trust me, we are never alone in our life adventures. We can trust the one who loves us the most, His name is Jesus. 

James 1:12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.