a pain in my neck

A few weeks ago, Jake got this awful pain in his neck.  I thought it was a crick, he thought it was from working out.  Whatever caused it, it was a doozie! He couldn't sleep very well, was in pain most of the day, and even a massage didn't help.  But, I guess it finally went away because he hasn't mentioned it in a while. Or maybe he passed it on to me... an epidemic!

You see, I woke up with a crick in my neck the other day.  It wasn't terrible, but it got worse throughout the day. By the evening, I had to sit with my body facing right so I could turn my head to the left, aka the only way it didn't hurt.  The next morning I was feeling more myself, but still in some pain. Quick movements still made me want to gasp... GASP (disclaimer- I live with dramatic people, y'all). The crick hasn't let up, but I learned to cope by looking over my left shoulder instead of my right and things like that. I'm making it.

I realized that this is like the sin in my life.  Jake does it first...  No, no, I kid.  It usually shows up unexpectedly. I am confronted with it.  For a while it's like a kick in the face. I rearrange my life because of it's inconvenience.  It's not my ideal and I want it to go away.  And then, gradually, I learn to live with it.  It becomes a little more convenient to just go about my life normally.  To live inhibited. I can pretend like it's not there for a very long time.
But I'm reminded that Someone once said that I was meant for more.

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

Yes.  To live in fullness. Not to cope with my sin and the destruction that it brings. To be able to turn my head to the right and to the left.  To live a new life.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

I am new!  I do not have to cope with the old me.  I am dead to sin and alive in Christ. I can lay my sin on the altar of His sacrifice. Walk in that newness for which He died. Jesus wants us to be free. He is just that good.

Now if only I could figure out my neck...

Abigail