Sometimes we get sucked down into discouragement because we simply cannot manage to lift our eyes see anything other than the problem or challenge in front of us. Have you ever felt like this? Stuck? How about stuck and nervous?
I’ve been known to spend time there.
God has shown me a few things about that in the wake of my April 15 Achilles surgery.
I had to wear a splint on my foot the first two weeks after my surgery. The longer I wore it the more it loosened. It started to feel like the gauze wrap inside the splint was slipping around and rubbing my skin raw. I wasn’t supposed to remove it, but I would have given anything to adjust all the gauze I could feel bunching up under my foot like a thick sock slipping down inside a shoe. The fabric rubbing made my heel and incision site burn and prickle.
I was stuck and nervous.
I had been so careful to do all the post-op procedures. Now I was afraid skin sores would prevent me from moving into a cast, the next step in recovering. I was uncomfortable and, despite doing “everything right,” I feared a setback.
Daily I worried as I counted down to the next appointment. I prayed and invited several friends to pray with me that God would protect my skin and my incision, so I could go forward on schedule. Even so, I truly expected I would be set back in my recovery by the sores forming inside the splint.
The day of my appointment, I was astonished and delighted to find that everything was perfectly fine! The skin around my incision was not raw; it was healing beautifully.
The gauze inside the splint hadn’t moved an inch.
It turns out everything I had been experiencing was due to nerve sensations.
Apparently this is pretty common with this surgery. The surgeon knew it. The woman putting my cast on knew it. But no one had told me. The healthy skin was, for me, a complete surprise!
For four or five days, I had anxiously relied on my perceptions and feelings because I couldn’t see inside the splint. I created a plausible explanation about what was happening and became convinced of (and worried about) the truth of my conclusion. I had engaged in what one friend calls “connecting the dots” to form a picture that turned out to be completely inaccurate.
Despite what the world may tell us, perception is NOT reality. What a vivid object lesson I had at the doctor’s office that day. The reality was that all was well, but I was restless until reality was revealed to me.
The gap between perception and reality is a well-studied phenomenon. A 2019 Psychology Today article notes our limited senses for perception: “… humans only see a circumscribed spectrum of colors or hear a defined range of sounds. But, just because we can’t perceive a dog whistle doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in reality.”
Filling in the blanks, connecting the dots, or spending time stuck in anxious feelings all have something in common: they all involve speculation. Speculation can lead us to have outlooks that are completely inaccurate.
This is something the enemy loves for us to engage in. We “fill in the blanks” of circumstances without all the information…often to our mental or emotional detriment. The enemy especially likes to tempt us to speculate in ways that leave God completely out of the equation.
Christians are reminded there is an entire reality, far more permanent and rich, than anything we can see here in the natural world. We are citizens of another kingdom. “So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18 CSB). A few verses later, Paul reminds us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Indeed.
Riding home with my new cast, I was humbled to realize that I had been putting far more trust in my “sight” than faith in God’s provision or protection. When physical sensation was all I had to go on, I leaned into the natural world and logic to interpret my situation. For several days I struggled to embrace the possibility that all was well and I could trust God. I was robbed of rest as a result. Does this ever happen to you?
Set aside some time today or tomorrow to talk with the Lord about some of these questions:
- What gaps between perception and reality do you encounter in your life?
- How do such gaps impact your relationships? Your opinions of others? Your sense of security? Your anxiety level?
- Where are you tempted most to walk by feelings or limited perception instead of faith in a good Father God?
Invite Him into the places in your life where you may be tempted to speculate, or where you may be discouraged by what you can “see” or by what you can’t.
Be rooted in His love and faithfulness!