I'm in recovery.

Merriam Webster: the act, process, or an instance of recovering... 

(Don't you hate those definitions within a definition?)
"To recover" means:

1: to get back : regain

2a : to bring back to normal position or condition recovered himself> b archaic : rescue

3a : to make up for <recover increased costs through higher prices> b : to gain by legal process

4 archaic : reach

5: to find or identify again <recover a comet>

6a : to obtain from an ore, a waste product, or a by-product b : to save from loss and restore to usefulness : reclaim

I'm recovering from an extended period of working while wounded – spiritually wounded, or "burned out" – to use popular vernacular.
Running on fumes.
At the end of my rope. 
Those phrases have all found their way into my vocabulary over the past few years. And now... relief has come.

But why isn't it instantaneous?


To my chagrin, this recovery process is taking a lot longer than I anticipated.

I expect it's the same for someone coming out of a broken relationship, a job loss, a bankruptcy, a natural disaster, or a death, in all varying degrees.

But I am impatient.
I want to be "back to normal" NOW.
Normal, however, is a figment of my imagination, nothing more than a state of mind. It would be better to look back to the definition and identify what recovery means, for me...

That's important for all of us, to clearly identify the GOAL of recovery, whether we're coming out of a bout with the flu or a financial crisis or a spiritual struggle. What's your goal, what's your vision? Picture yourself in your mind's eye as "recovered," what do you see? Write it down. 

"Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it. Hab 2:2 NKJV

Without a vision (a hope and plan for the culmination of your recovery) you run the risk of being disappointed. Where are you headed? What does it mean to be rescued? To be reclaimed?

Remember Tom Hanks' in Castaway? His rescue, or recovery, was not what he expected. He had to establish a "new normal," and so do we when we find ourselves in the position of recovering from something, whether it's surgery or injury or some other ailment.


Give yourself time. I'm trying. God is working, piece by piece, part by part, step by step, to restore me to wholeness and strength. But I need to give Him (and me) time to accomplish the process.

(for more A2Z posts, by talented writers with words to bless you, click on the picture... believe me, it's worth it)