There are many aspects of living that aren’t noticed until they’re gone. We are a nearsighted people that tend to take for granted what we value most. Often, we don’t even know it’s valued until it’s absent. This is true of love, opportunities, and time, but it’s also true of our biology. We appreciate our respiratory system more after a bad cold than we did before. A finger is valued more after a paper cut. Toes are appreciated more after the removal of a splinter. A heart is more precious after a bypass. A limb is more appreciated once it’s gone. This isn’t necessarily a grievous fault of our humanity. We just don’t know how blessed we are when everything is working as it should. Our bodies just do what they were designed to with little help from us. We don’t notice it because we’ve never really needed to. Until they stop doing what they’ve always done.
I’ve experienced this with my vocal cord. Before I lost one, I never stopped to think about how it worked, what it did, and how I valued it. When my right vocal cord became paralyzed, I had to relearn common things. Breathing, swallowing, and talking took more effort. I had never focused much on those things. I just did them. When something is lost, things are suddenly different.
The best way I can think of to explain freedom is that it’s the reverse type of change. It’s when the script is flipped and the opposite of loss happens. When all of a sudden you now have something you didn’t know was missing. There comes a moment in our pursuit of God and His ways when we wake up to find that everything has changed. In a good way. Maybe not always in the ways that we can see, but after we’ve waited with God and continued doing good, at the proper time the season changes. Suddenly, the breakthrough that had been walked out painstakingly takes hold. Suddenly, perseverance has its complete work. The journey is long, but the shift is swift. That’s what healing looks like. That’s what breakthrough looks like. A long walk in the direction of God. The healing and breakthrough happen inside of us before they ever become apparent on the outside. That’s how God works. He starts on the inside because He’s not interested in whitewashing anything.
It’s been said that “There are really only two ways to live. One is as if there are no miracles and the other is as if everything is a miracle.” You can tell which way you’re living by your gratitude. A person that believes everything is a miracle, believes that everything holds an opportunity to see God. And they’re grateful when they see Him. Those living as if there are no miracles see everything as a chore, a difficulty, or a problem. They cultivate no gratefulness because they feel owed something for their trouble. They make their God small and themselves big.
Our God is big, and He is the God of miracles. Breakthrough is here. Present today. Every day. It is living inside of every believer. Breakthrough is everywhere we go and in everything we do. We carry the breakthrough in us, because we house the Spirit of King Jesus in us. Whether we see it or not…live in it or not will be dependent on the cultivating of gratefulness for it.
My healing wasn’t the supernatural healing that I first prayed for, but it was miraculous, nonetheless. For me, my heart was free long before my throat became free from its limitation. My mind was fixed long before my vocal cord was. I experienced the miracle before my body revealed it. It was something I never could have made happen on my own. I did not have the courage, the resources, or the ability. I was not strong enough on my own. I carried that breakthrough in my heart before I could point to the proof of it…knew He was working before I could show you what He was building. The change came suddenly, and I value its imprint on my soul like a new part of my biology. The journey was messy and even ugly at times, but what God did inside me was the bigger miracle.