May 5, 2025 Healing, Hurdles, and Holy Habits
Monday, May 5, 2025
Read: Healing, Hurdles, and Holy Habits
At first they [the townspeople] were in awe –
and then they were upset,…over the drowned pigs.
They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.
(Mark 5:17, Message)
Shedding my walker two weeks after surgery left me feeling smug and ready for the next physical therapy challenge: stepping over hurdles the height of a curb. I moved toe to heel, wobbled, and stumbled.
“Step across, heel to toe,” the therapist corrected. “Otherwise, you’ll catch your foot and fall.”
The next task—coming from sitting to a stand without using my arms—also revealed bad habits.
“You’re bending that knee and favoring your right leg,” he noted. “You’re still letting the left do all the work.”
“And the problem is…?” I joked. At first I wanted to listen but then realized how difficult and painful following his instruction would be.
He smiled. “Remember the goals – rebuild strength and balance; avoid falling.”
Weeks of therapy retrained muscles I unknowingly taught to compensate for weakness in my hip. It was hard, deliberate, often painful work—just like reshaping spiritual habits that keep me from becoming more like Christ.
In Mark 5, Jesus delivered a demon-possessed man and sent the spirits into a herd of pigs. The townspeople, awestruck at first, soon whiplashed into an angry mob because their pigs – and livelihood – drowned. They begged Jesus to leave (Mark 5:17).
They chose profit over spiritual power. Possessions over healing. Like Augustine once prayed, “Lord, make me pure—but not yet!” They embraced a “both-and” faith. Spiritual wholeness with Christ as Lord is an “either-or” decision.
Spiritual, like physical, restoration takes a life-long “all-in” intention. When we walk in His Spirit, we open ourselves regularly to examine and reshape “muscle memory” habits that keep us stuck in a “not yet” way of living. Like my physical therapy, spiritual transformation demands commitment and effort—but leads to strength, balance, and freedom in Christ.
Reflect: What habit or belief might God be inviting you to unlearn or relinquish in order to walk more fully in step with Him? To become “holy as He is holy?”
Pray: Lord, reveal the habits and mindsets I’ve grown comfortable with but that no longer serve Your purpose in me. Give me courage to let go, wisdom to follow Your lead, and strength to form new patterns that reflect Your Spirit. Make me more like You—step by step. Amen.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby
Lay Leader