Spreading the pain …

Anyone who has ever gone through surgery knows we have a tendency to overcompensate when we’re injured.

When I had my knee operated on as a teenager, I learned all kinds of skills with crutches! I could get around the large high school I went to as fast as anyone on two feet. And I learned how to use the crutches as an extension of my arms to accomplish about anything I needed. I also experienced some pain in my “good” knee because I overcompensated with my healthy leg for the hurt one.

The same happened when I tore my rotator cuff. The elbow, shoulder and even my wrist on my non-injured side went through some pain because of the extra burden I placed on them to compensate for my injured shoulder.

What I learned in both instances was, if I was ever going to get healthy, I had to overcompensate less and work on directly fixing the weaknesses. It hurt — a lot! — to rehab my knee and shoulder. It was easier to overcompensate with my healthy limbs rather than suffering the pain of strengthening my injured ones. But it was necessary to incrementally face the pain of rehabilitating my knee and shoulder in order to become whole again.

We carry this tendency to overcompensate into most aspects of our lives. Instead of dealing with hurt relationships, we compensate by ignoring glaring weaknesses and give attention to what still works. Instead of addressing issues in our marriages, our workplace, our churches, or ourselves, we ignore the weaknesses to avoid the pain of becoming whole.

Do you see the obvious problem with that? We remain broken.

But we can only overcompensate for so long before other aspects experience pain from carrying burdens they’re not supposed to. We can actually create additional injury to ourselves by not doing the painful work of healing.

Is there some aspect of brokenness in your life that you’re overcompensating for? What would it take for you to mend your injuries and become whole again? When will you start?

Scotty