Adjustments

I have issues. Most require treatment, sometimes medication. My most pressing chronic problem is located in my neck and back, making visits to the chiropractor a regular part of my self-care routine. Adjustments are needed to get everything back in alignment—I just wish they would stick.

Unfortunately, my physical body isn’t the only thing out of whack; I often need internal adjustments too. As it turns out, the real misalignment is way beyond my spine.

In a sermon he preached on November 18, 2012 (yes, I take notes!), Pastor Aaron Brockett reminded me of how life can also slip out of alignment at times when I get in the driver’s seat. God will let us drive but “inevitably we nosedive it into the ground and eventually everything gets knocked out of alignment—just like in a car accident,” he said. My own experience echoes his, “My life, my whole world is just knocked out of alignment.”

Despite hearing this message years ago, it remains with me. And it has recently become more real as I surpassed the statistical half-way milestone in my life, a point at which I thought I had it all figured out. For years, I have charted my own course, done things my way, and followed my carefully planned agenda with the freedom I have been given. Unfortunately, I have learned the hard way that my thoughts are not always in line with God’s plan. The older I get the more I realize that I need God, “The Great Chiropractor.”

While much of the misalignment occurs because of choices we make, some of the most painful adjustments may be forced upon us—a child leaving for college, a sudden loss of a loved one, an unexpected end to a relationship. Often these circumstances require stopping and taking time to rest and regroup; others may even require a complete halt. All involve a change of course—adjusting the sails, following a new path, doing things differently than in the past. Changes are needed despite their being as unwelcome as the pain in my neck.

Aaron would agree. “I have gone to a chiropractor a few times in my life, and there is a fair amount of discomfort and pain involved with the realigning; cracking, popping, pulling, pushing and stretching all done by a tiny little woman with superhuman strength,” he said. “It is pain, but it is pain with a purpose.”

The good news is that we don’t have to go through these adjustment times alone. As I face each new day and season of my life, I am comforted in knowing that I have help along the way—the love of family and friends, not to mention two chiropractors!

l love this message which hangs on the wall of Traders Point Christian Church.