THE MIDDLE FINGER

PRACTICE: Recall a non- life-threatening pain that you experienced. Hold that memory and walk with me.

I seldom get to share experiences with you in real time because most of the time the lesson being taught is not recognized until much later. The last two plus weeks of pain in my middle finger is an exception. It started with a very small injury to the cuticle of my right middle finger. I completely forgot the injury for three days when I noticed a slight throbbing sensation and some swelling. It was worse on the next day and by day five the pain radiated up to the shoulder. Day six, the fingertip was the size of a stuffed sausage. Grabbing or holding anything and any touch could produce a painful groan. By the afternoon of the sixth day, I could visibly locate the site of the infection and with the urging of my husband, I knew that I had to perform a sterile home lancing procedure to release the pressure. I didn’t care that I wasn’t a licensed medical provider, I needed some relief. I pierced the site and relief was instant, but I was not released completely from the pain. Complete release took another 2 days. I am still waiting on the complete healing.

During pain and healing of the finger I could see the correlations between the physical and emotional expression of pain and the healing process. It may be easy to identify the cause of the pain. It may take years for the pressure from the emotional pain to become so intense that one seeks help. Even though the pain is identified, lanced with professional help and the pressure of the pain begins to subside, release and healing takes time.

A couple of days after my self- administered lancing the top layer of the skin began to peel. I cleaned the peeling skin away and it looked better. I still couldn’t put much pressure on the finger without pain…can’t you see the parallel to healing emotionally? Things are going okay and then something, or someone puts pressure on the old wound and the pain is rekindled. I finally reached a point in about a week where things looked normal. I awakened 9 days after the lancing and a pocket of dead hard skin had developed. My middle finger was wearing the trauma it had experienced. I had a choice… I could wear that hardened armor as a badge of honor or soak the finger in warm water and carefully remove the useless dead skin to reveal the beautiful new skin underneath. I chose the latter.

1 Peter 5:10

PONDER THIS THOUGHT – Relief from pain and Release from the pain are not reliable markers that you are healed.