Sunday, September 09, 2012

Creaks and Rattles



God why do we have to suffer pain? Why this accident? Why can’t we just walk around and do our business without fear that some toxin, some genetic disease is lurking around our DNA to slow us down?

God gave us the brains to use common sense, so quit complaining and seek some help. So I turn to a friend who recommends a chiropractor he sees once a year. Now this is not the first time that I have had this ding. Once during Holy Week, I am preparing for Holy Thursday services getting ready to lay prostate on the floor. However, before the service I was exercising on the rectory living room floor so that I could complete this service. Little did the parishioners know that father was “bent out of shape” and in alot of pain.

Now I find myself in a strange doctor office with a pain that won’t go away. I tried the novena medication prayer, but its not working. Dr. Mike greets me and invites a young doctor to observe his technique. This healer is a gem. Standing on a platform, my chin in place, the table moves face down like in the movie the “Pit and the Pendulum.” It's painful but we slowly make our way all the way down. A pinch here and a tuck their and our specialist diagnoses what the old time farmers use to call a “slip disc.”

How many times have we walked into the doctor’s office not so much worried about the procedure, but the pronouncement that some terrible disease that we can’t pronounce is lurking in our bones. How many patients do I see each week with their “creaks and rattles” that need adjustment. Which at the moment our chiropractor is performing his miracle dance. Tucking my arm in and straightening my leg in the opposaite direction, he bears down with his weight and waits for a “click.” Note, I said “click” not CRACK!

Sometimes, we need an adjustment when it comes to our attutde in life. There are many times, we are faced down on the table fearful of another medical problem. God is present in the hands of someone He has blessed to make the proper adjustments and help us get back top normal.

I like what Dr. Mike said to me after the treatment. "We will have you back to normal in a week." Better yet, when we next met for another adjustment we talked about the new doctors coming into his profession. The most important piece of advice this healer gave his student was treat your patients like family. Like they were your cousins coming in for help.

That’s how God wants us to think when we have fallen down with a ding or our lives are bent out of shape. We must never give up hope, despite the silence. God comes to us in ways we least expect and always hears our prayers for help to heal our pain. God gives us the courage to persevere when the diagnose makes our life miserable or worse never goes away.

God is walking with us this morning when we pray: “…the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.” (Luke 9:9).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that despite all our "creaks and rattles" we are given the courage to persevere and grateful for the healers who adjust our health and give us hope.