Instead of a new podcast episode today, I wanted to give you all a blog post. It feels as if it’s been months since I’ve typed up one of these. And for all of you all who feel the same way, I’m sorry guys. I’ll make sure it’s never this long in between blog posts again, but back to tonight’s topic. This topic came to me as I was sitting behind my desk at work today.

I’ll start off with a quick analogy as usual. (I’m the “King of analogies,” as my wife calls me) Growing up I loved watching football and still do. I heard a really cool saying from an announcer once after a player was injured on the field. The player was on the sideline being assessed of his ability to resume play by a coach and the team doctor. As they were talking to the player, the T.V. commentator said to his co-anchor “they are trying to see if he’s hurt or if he’s injured.” If you were like me at age 12 you may have thought “what?” that means exactly the same thing. But in sports, just like in life we learn that there’s a difference, meaning you can be hurt and not injured. To further explain, in being hurt you can normally play through whatever the problem is as long as you can tolerate the pain. A good “RaRa speech” and a pat on the butt later, you can normally get back out there. But an injury is catastrophic. There’s no playing with an injury, and if you do you become a further liability to yourself and to your teammates because you are not able to perform at your best. No “RaRa speech” can save you from an injury. Injuries require time, patience, grieving, mourning, rest, recovery, and most times, therapy in some form.

So I ask, are you hurt or are you injured?

“Don’t be so willing to give someone a pep talk that you never actually stop to find out if they even need one.”

Dennis

We all have grown accustomed to a society where if something is wrong we’re immediately told “it’s going to be alright.” Sadly we don’t live in a reflective society where we’re allotted time to process, grieve or morn. And if we are, it’s based upon a subjective amount of time of when we should be over it. Whatever it is…

Yes life goes on…
Yes the world never stops…
Yes time is the only thing we can’t get back…..

But what about my mental, spiritual, and physical fatigue?

Sometimes we have to sit in that room of discomfort in order to be prepared for a world that never stops and a life that perpetually goes on. Going a little bit deeper, if we don’t take time to process, we walk away from situations prematurely, leaving pieces of ourselves attached to those individual issues. These issues can never be healed fully until we actually sit in the place of hurt… until we settle in to the place of discomfort and become accustomed to being uncomfortable. The issue, whatever it is, has done some damage to you. Now go ahead and give yourself and others the time to assess the damage and heal.

You can go back out there later and finish this game called life, but right now you’re injured and you need time to heal.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.