Believe It
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
Psalm 51:12
If we will listen with kindness and compassion to our own souls, we will hear the echoes of a hope so precious we can barely put words to it, a wild hope we can hardly bear to embrace. God put it there. He also breathed the corresponding promise into the earth; it is the whisper that keeps coming to us in moments of golden goodness. But of course. “God has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The secret to your unhappiness and the answer to the agony of the earth are one and the same—we are longing for the kingdom of God. We are aching for the restoration of all things.1
Our youngest son, Jordan, used to live on his tippy toes. He walked on his toes, ran fast on his toes, and played football on his toes. He was born with tight heel cords, tight gastrocs (calf muscles), and tight hamstrings. Picture him on the examination table at the doctor’s office. When the doctor asked Jordan to straighten his leg, Jordan would extend his leg only to have his upper body drop backwards at an angle. He was so tight that he couldn’t sit up straight and extend his leg out straight at the same time. His condition made him a fast runner but would eventually present alignment problems if we didn’t deal with it during his younger years.
We helped him stretch twice a day. We reminded him constantly to drop his heels and try to walk on his feet. We massaged the back of his legs and his lower back. Our efforts proved insufficient, and Jordan eventually needed serial casting on each leg. They’d flex his foot a bit and then cast it for weeks at a time. He went through three casts on each leg.
Doctors told us that Jordan would deal with consistent back, hip, and joint pain if he didn’t stretch as a way of life. We stretched him as often as we could. But, if you’ve read any of my past books or heard me speak, you know that Jordan still suffered a serious back injury in high school while playing football. Turns out, the less flexible we are, the greater the risk of injury. (I’d say this is true in life too.)
The ref blew the whistle. The play was over. Still, a player on the opposing team clipped Jordan hard when he wasn’t ready for it, and the rest is history. Doctors told us it was one of the worst disc herniations they’d seen.
At one point the doctor told me that the disc blowout severely compressed three sets of nerves in Jordan’s spine and, as a result, he could lose control of his bowels at any time. We were heartbroken for him. We heard multiple stories of adult men who ended up disabled from this same injury. This was a nightmare come true for our dear son.
But one day I’d heard two stories of miraculous healings from this exact injury and something rose up within me. Faith, I suppose! I shared the news with Jordan. “Son, you know I’ve struggled most of my adult life with health issues, and God hasn’t miraculously healed me. My recovery has been more of a process. But even so, I believe that He still works miracles today. In the past twenty-four hours, I’ve heard two stories of how God miraculously healed two men with your same injury. What if we go out on a limb, err on the side of faith, and ask God for a miracle for you? Let’s just see what God might do. Are you with me?”
Surprisingly, my dear, reserved son, who’d grown quite depressed from the daily pain and limitations, nodded yes, he was up for it. It’s such a beautiful story, I wish I had the space to tell it again here, but suffice to say, one night at youth group, a fellow student prayed for him, and he was instantly healed. A medical miracle.
So few receive this kind of miracle, you’d think this would have changed Jordan’s life forever. And it did—physically. Yet he still wandered from the faith after high school. Then the storms hit and God showed him the way home. He was emotionally beat up, bruised, and brokenhearted. And his whole body ached. Especially his back and his hips. In his vulnerable state, he started to doubt that he’d really received a miracle all those years ago.
I grabbed Jordan by the shoulders, stared him straight in the eyes, and said, “Son, there’s no disputing what happened to you back then. One day you could barely move, and the next, you were sprinting and lifting weights. God healed you. But do you remember what the doctors told you when you were young? You need to stretch. Jesus will tend to those wounds in your heart, but the physical stuff? I think it’s a stewardship issue. You have to do that. No one can do it for you.”
One day this young adult son of ours walked into our kitchen looking dumbfounded.
“What’s on your heart today?” I asked.
He proceeded to tell me that he went to urgent care and saw a random doctor because his knee really bothered him and he needed a brace or support so he wouldn’t miss work.
The doctor looked up Jordan’s records and somehow a previous MRI showed up (from a different clinic ten years prior). She stared at the screen and breathed out one word: “Wow.”
Jordan didn’t know what she was looking at, so he waited for her to finish her thought.
She shook her head, looked in his eyes, and said, “That must have been some back surgery you endured. That’s one of the worst disc herniations I’ve ever seen.”
His throat caught a little and he replied, “Umm. I didn’t end up needing surgery.”
Exasperated she said, “No way! There’s NO way you’re walking today without having had surgery. Is this your MRI?”
He verified the information was correct.
Jesus, in no uncertain terms, reminded Jordan that he’d indeed received a miracle back then. And that for this phase of the healing journey, God wanted his cooperation and participation. I’m watching him tend to the things he can and should. And I’m watching him heal from the inside out. He’s become the Christ-following man we always dreamed he would be. To me, it’s even more marvelous than his sudden-healing moment all those years ago.
Not Much Longer
Recently, John Eldredge joined me on my radio show to talk about his book All Things New. We had a fantastic conversation around the whole idea of restoration. I asked him to speak to the person listening who is battle weary and worn out from the fight. He said something like this: “My friend, just tell your soul, ‘Not much longer.’ Not much longer. Soon, very soon, Jesus will restore all things to us! There’s no loss, heartbreak, sacrifice, or disappointment that God won’t redeem many times over. But know this: That redemption process starts now!”
Scripture tells us that even creation groans for that day:
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
Romans 8:18–19
We’ll dig deeper into this passage in the pages ahead, but for now, know that Jesus invites us to expectancy! Right smack dab in the middle of our suffering, Jesus tilts our chin, asks for our trust, and invites us to hope for the impossible. Some of our inheritance we’ll see when we see Jesus face-to-face, some of it He entrusts to us now. Today. Can we dare believe that Jesus wants to show us His goodness in the land of the living? Do you think it’s possible to experience a radical breakthrough in the body you’re in? What about those destructive thoughts that you have on repeat? Can you picture yourself with a thought-life makeover—where once you felt small and self-aware, you now feel larger than life and filled with the Spirit?
God wants to partner with us in our flourishing. He plays a part. And we play a part. And of course, there’s another spiritual component to all of this too. We have a very real enemy who aims to do more than just poke fun at us. He wants to steal the precious gifts God has given us, kill any hint of life that springs up from our soil, and destroy any work of God that flows out of our abiding life.
If the devil can’t keep our soul (because we’ve trusted Jesus with our eternity), he’ll do whatever he can to distress our soul and to destroy our peace. Thankfully, we’re not at the mercy of his whims and schemes. Jesus has equipped us to stop our enemy at every turn.
Jesus wants to help us sort through our story in a way that brings us healing and fullness. He designed our bodies and our souls to thrive. We can trust Him as He leads us through the healing process. And yet there’s a measure of wholeness and flourishing we will not know apart from both of these things:
Even if we think we can, we absolutely cannot separate the various aspects of who we are any more than we can separate the trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, woven together by God’s own hand.
Jesus wants us to flourish. He wants us whole. He wants to take what the enemy meant for evil against us and turn it for good. He wants us to live life bold and free, courageous and steadfast.
In order for us to flourish, we need to take the necessary time to examine our most repetitive thoughts and see where they’ve been leading us. As painful as it might be, we need to revisit some of the hurts from our past and see if they’re still speaking a contrary message to us. We need to better guard our hearts from the toxic influences of the day. And we need to look at our habits and our routines to see what adjustments will bring abundance to our lives so that we can be our best selves. Sometimes the smallest tweaks make the biggest difference.
We also need a few miracles in our lives. How about if we ask for those too?
I’d say the thing in your life that compels you to pray for a miracle is probably the very thing that has taken a significant toll on your soul. Don’t lose your sense of expectancy. Dare to hope again. Dare to dream again. Believe that you truly do serve a wonder-working God.