Healing is a Process

The other day, I was attending counseling, and I felt frustrated that I wasn’t better yet. I was talking about a problem I was having, and it seemed like I had been struggling with similar issues forever. I was probably being a bit dramatic, but I was sick and tired of dealing with the same issues and not seeing much progress.

Can you relate? Maybe it’s a physical issue, like your diet or your health. Maybe it’s an emotional issue, like depression or anxiety. Or maybe it’s a relationship problem, like difficulty engaging with your spouse or your kids. Whatever the issue is, it seems like you have been working on it and praying about it forever, and it doesn’t seem to be doing much good.

In his book Changes that Heal, Henry Cloud talks about three important ingredients for healing and growth: grace, truth, and time. Often I forget about the last ingredient. The reality is that it took a long time to develop whatever problem you are dealing with. And it will take time to work the problem out and get to where you want to be.

There’s an interesting story in the Gospel of Mark that shows healing isn’t often a one-time thing, even for Jesus. Here is what happened:

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly (Mark 8:22-25).

Even for Jesus, healing was sometimes a process that took time. If you are struggling to change something in your life and are starting to feel discouraged, don’t give up. Your breakthrough might be just around the corner.