Welcome to the Set Your Mind Above podcast, where every day, ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths! I am your host BJ Sipe, and I’m so glad you’ve tuned in today! I am excited to share my life & my faith with you, and I sure hope you’ll do the same with me along the way.

It’s hard to believe that already three weeks have gone by since our son broke his leg. To refresh your memory, back in the third episode I relayed the story of how Dane was going down the slide at the park when his leg got caught and went the wrong direction. He immediately started to fuss and he couldn’t put weight on it. It turned out that he had broken & displaced his tibia, which thankfully set itself before it was casted by the wonderful doctors and nurses up at UK children’s hospital. They told us to wait three weeks before coming back to check his leg and make sure that everything had healed properly. Well, yesterday morning my wife took him back up where they x-rayed his leg and informed us that his leg had healed perfectly! Our brave son this time didn’t mind at all the x-rays or even the saw they used to cut the cast off. He was the happiest boy in the world to finally be free of his cast and have mobility again…but it didn’t exactly go as I think he had anticipated. When Kylie brought him home, I was able to see how weak his left leg was from lack of mobility for three straight weeks. She set him down to walk for the first time, and all he did was continue to fall over. He struggled with bending his leg, straightening his foot, and he still walked with a huge gimp like he had with the cast. You see just because his bone was completely healed didn’t mean that everything went back to normal immediately, other things surrounding the bone were affected. His hips and alignment are all off from hobbling on a cast for so long, and it is going to take several chiropractic visits to get them straightened out. Also, he had just learned to walk not long before his accident and then suddenly had to stop and adapt to this cast. In essence, while he is regaining his strength, he is just going to have to be patient while he learns to walk again. It will take time, patience, and a little more adjustment in other areas while he gets stronger and gets mobile again. But if he’s willing to wait, soon he will be running free like the rambunctious boy he is as though nothing had ever slowed him down. 

Our spiritual walk works in much of the same way. Sometimes things happen in our lives that can bring us to a screeching halt, and the only word to adequately describe it is broken. Sometimes our brokenness can be the result of sin, or suffering, or doubt, etc. It can happen at a congregational level, a family level, or an individual level. As a result, everything around us in our lives is impacted. I was once told the acronym of “Pies” that the different things in our life can be broken down into Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Spiritual. What we need to recognize is that these things are all interconnected with one another. When one suffers, the others also suffer as a result. Just think about it for a moment: when you’re broken and trying to heal your heart, it affects everything. Your sleep, your eating habits, your prayers, your focus, your thoughts, everything. We want so desperately just to get up and start running again, but we can’t. We’re weary, exhausted, and weak in every way possible: physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. So what can we do? Here is the answer: we must learn to wait and look to God for strength. Consider Isaiah 40:27-31, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” We are going to get broken sometimes, we are going to get knocked down and not know what hit us. Some time might pass and you might think, “What’s wrong with me? Why aren’t things back to normal yet? Shouldn’t I be over this?” Be patient…you just got your cast off, you’ve got to learn to walk again. Whether it’s as a church, a family, or you personally, it’s not going to go back to normal right away. There are other things that have been impacted in your life because of whatever it is that you’re facing, and it’s left you weak and exhausted physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. So wait on the Lord, and be willing to trust him. He has not disregarded you, much rather he will work to strengthen you and restore you, but that takes time. The Scripture tells us that if we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. Come to him and wait on the Lord, see that he can make all things beautiful in his time. Before you know it you’ll be running again, strengthened by the grace and mercy that are found in Christ Jesus. Make no mistake, if you try to do it alone you will not find the strength you need to recover. But if your strength comes from Christ, then through him you can do all things so long as you’re patient and wait on him. 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and weekly video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above!