We Always Need An Adjustment

Maybe body surfing was not such a good idea.

Tropical storm Danny had just passed by and the waves were approximately the size of bulldozers.  But being the adventurer that I am, I found myself atop a boiling wave accelerating toward the beach.  Suddenly the wave flipped me over and did a Hulk Hogan atomic leg drop on me and slammed me on my back on the hard sand, giving me a fresh appreciation for the word “excruciating.”  That pretty much ended my ocean time for our vacation as I spent the last two days in a deck chair or creaking about in slow motion like a 102-year old.

After two weeks passed and not much improvement I scheduled an appointment with a chiropractor.  Wouldn’t you know it, the day of my appointment my back actually started to feel a little better.  So when I entered the office, I said to the secretary, “I’m feeling a little better — maybe I don’t really need to see the doctor.”

To which she replied, “Oh, we always need an adjustment.”

“Of course you would say that,” I teased her, “You’re the secretary. That’s what every good chiropractor’s secretary would say.”

But I stayed, and received my “adjustment.”  Boy did it hurt.  When I left the office I felt worse than when I came in, which the doctor told me would probably happen.  It would initially be painful, but eventually improve.

My wife Kristi asked how it went.

“The doc really put the hurt on me,” I said.  “But he says I’ll be much better in the long run.”

Next day it really did feel better.  A couple days later I returned, and once again the doc put the hurt on me and I hobbled out in more pain than when I came in, yet by evening was better than before my appointment.  Guess the secretary was right — we always need an adjustment.

This is true spiritually as well.  I’ve been a Christian for around 35 years, yet still need Scripture to correct my thinking and bring me back to the plumb line of God’s truth.  I need to regularly read God’s word, have friends to speak God’s word to me, and hear God’s word preached, which is why Paul encouraged Timothy:

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 TI 4.2).

Sometimes God’s word puts the hurt on me – it rebukes or reproves me.  Sometimes it exhorts or encourages me to get back in line with the Word.  Sometimes its teaching realigns what I’m believing.  But I’m always in need of adjustment.  Early the very morning of my first chiropractic appointment I met for accountability with my fellow pastors Joe, and Stephen my son, who gently adjusted me in some areas of unbelief I’d been drifting into.  But I’ve experienced increased faith and joy since then.

We always need an adjustment.  How about you?  How has God has adjusted you with his powerful word recently?

photo by vergenceranges