Between Us

How Do I Get Through the Next 86,400 Seconds?

Lysa TerKeurstIwant healing to be as neat and predictable as a checklist. I don’t want to be inconvenienced by it, and I most certainly don’t want to be caught off guard by the emotions that can go along with it. If you’ve ever had to heal from having your heart broken, you know you can’t schedule healing. You can’t hurry it up. And you can’t control how and when it will want to be tended to. Part of what makes healing so hard is the deep ache left behind after the trauma. Loss envelops us with an aching grief that comes in unpredictable waves. It’s hard to know if you’re getting better when a string of good days suddenly gives way to an unexpected emotional crash. You feel angrier than ever over the unfairness of it all. The wounds seem raw, confusing, and unhealed. You just wish someone would please tell you how you’re supposed to make it through all 86,400 seconds of this day in the midst of so much pain. I understand all these feelings. I know how incredibly difficult it can be to function amid daily life when you’re wondering if your heart will ever feel whole again. Like when I laid my head down on the banana display in the grocery store during one of the most devastating seasons of my life. I was just standing there with an empty cart, a heart full of pain, and my face pressed into the display. The worker saw me and couldn’t figure out what I was doing. I guess he assumed my concern was about the choices of fruit before me. He asked, “Can I help you?” I turned my face toward him. Tears flooded out. And all I could think to say was, “I need a tissue.” Lovely. Nothing makes a day complete quite like a breakdown in front of an underpaid fruit attendant at the grocery store. But I’ve discovered those days don’t have to be setbacks. They can be evidence we’re moving through the hardest parts of healing. The new tears over old wounds are proof we’re tending to our emotions. We’re processing the grief. We’re wrestling well with the ache in our soul. Feeling the pain is the first step toward healing the pain. And all those emotions that keep bubbling up and unexpectedly spilling out? They’re evidence you aren’t dead inside. There’s life under the surface. And while feelings shouldn’t be dictators of how we live, they are great indicators of what still needs to be worked through. When we love deeply, we hurt deeply. This is why we must learn how to trust the process of healing. We must let it ebb and flow around, in, and through us. We must grant it access to our heart. And when we start to see healing as unfolding layers of unexpected strength and richly revealed wisdom, it doesn’t feel so unfair. It starts to feel like a secret wisdom God is whispering into the depth of our soul. Then one day we suddenly realize the future feels stunningly appealing. Not because circumstances have changed but because we have embraced reality, released control, and found this healed version of ourselves is what we’d been looking for all along. Our God is a God of restoration. And all that aching within you is proof there’s a beautiful remaking in process. Don’t give up. God loves you. You are not alone. Healing is possible.

“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Pet. 5:10).

Gain healthier ways to process your pain and learn to see your situations through truth-based perspectives with Lysa’s new devotional, Seeing Beautiful Again: 50 Devotions to Find Redemption in Every Part of Your Story. Order your copy today at seeingbeautifulagain.com.

Lysa TerKeurst is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries. Her book, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, will help you discover what the Bible really says about forgiveness and the peace that comes from living it out right now. Find out more at ForgivingWhatYouCantForget.com. Lysa lives with her family in North Carolina. LysaTerKeurst.com T LysaTerKeurst F Lysa TerKeurst