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Better Than Ever

Although it sounds like an understatement, when I severely broke my ankle, it hurt.  Same thing with my wrist.  The body immediately reacts to a fractured bone.  Pain is immediate and severe.  Swelling and discoloration follow.  The bone, once whole and intact, is now damaged and misaligned.  That bone now has to be fixed and heal.  
In my case both of these breaks reqired surgery complete with metal plates and screws.  The surgeries were followed by more pain, weeks in a cast, doctor's appointments to monitor the healing process, and intense physical therapy.  In addition to all that there was the annoyance and inconvenience of not being able to perform the daily tasks of living. Dependance on someone else to help with even the simplest task is not easy for me.  The good news is that now healed they tell me that those bones are stronger then ever.  Mere bone, as miraculous and complicated as it is, is now reinforced with titanium. 
I thought of my broken, mended bones when I recently heard someone say that they greived for the the years they had lost during a particular struggle.  Even though they are on the other side of the struggle, they lament those seemingly lost years.  Looking with our natural eyes, that's how it seems.  Years spent embroiled in struggles, side-tracked by sin, or wandering from God appear to be wasted.  We feel guilty for the perceived loss.  We grieve for time gone that cannot be brought back. Those times are much like the times of physical distress with my broken bones.  Truth is, the times we spend handicapped either physically, emotionally, or spiritually cannot be brought back.  They are forever gone.  Now if I stop there, it sounds really depressing.  Lost time, wasted weeks or years, never to be regained, how can there be anything positive about that?
As I thought about the comment that had been made about those lost years, God impressed upon my heart that time spent in healing, growing, building, and changing for the better is never lost.  After all, isn't that what this life is all about?  It is a constant growing and refining process.  In this life we will never achieve the perfection that awaits us in the eternal, but we are slowly and surely being transformed into his image.  It takes the mistakes, the discipline, the stumbling and falling over and over, and the constant getting up and starting all over to accomplish that.  
As I move toward the last years of my life, I can now see with much more clarity that the most painful and trying times in my life have resulted in strength, character, a much stronger faith, and total dependence on my God.  Those times, that by human standards, might appear to be "lost" are actually valuable and necessary.  They are the mortar, so to speak, that strengthens the wall.  
Knowing and embracing that has made all the difference for me.  It changes the way I face those challanges.  Instead of dread and fear, I can view them from the "how can I grow and learn from this" perspective.  What a welcome change!
Romans 12:2  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Joel 2:25 ....I will repay you for the years the locsusts have eaten--

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