The hardware in my right arm, consisting of a six inch steel plate and six screws, has to come out on Monday, June 26, 2006. After six years of holding my little arm together after a fracture, the plate and screws now cause more harm than good. What began as an aid to my recovery, an assistance to my renewed functioning, now hinders and limits me.
It is time to move on--without the hardware. Life is like that. When something or someone is instrumental in helping us to heal or holding us together while we heal, we tend to hang on long after the healing is complete. Perhaps we fear that without that person or thing, we will fall apart. That we are not completely healed. We forget that the aid is a tool; a tool is an instrument that assists the healing, but does not do the healing.
I used to think that the screws held my bone in place. For a time, it did. But the bone is now stable. It has grown back together, and now the plate and the screws are an impediment. They keep me from moving on and doing what God has called me to do.
If the tool that helped you heal is a person, the great news is that you can still love and be loved by that person. But for you and that relationship to grow, you have to let go. For a while, you cling to that friend for dear life. And after the crisis is over, you enjoy a close kinship. But let that friend go. The separation will be painful. Some therapy may be required. But greater healing and usefulness is ahead.
I've experienced that with friendships. I am counting on that for my arm!
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