Ep.2 - Suffering

And so a lot of the episodes that you're gonna hear on this podcast are gonna be centered around What the father is currently teaching me? Right? The vision.

The mountains and valleys podcast is about the journey of life that we that we're all on. And what the father is currently teaching me is that journey. It's the journey that I'm on. And so my vision for this podcast is not that you need to get on the exact same journey as me because the father has a perfect path for me. He has a perfect path for you, but those are different. But my prayer

is that through me sharing my journey, you feel uplifted that you feel encouraged to go out and seek your own journey with the father And so the father for the past few years and recently has really been teaching me about trials and difficulties in life about suffering. Now this may be a journey that you're on right now, and it and it may not be and that's alright. But what I've really been learning is that it's so important to know how to navigate and handle trials. And the way everybody does it is different. But, again, that's all about the individual journey that we're all on.

I'm just gonna pray quickly, and we're we're gonna get get into this. Father, we thank you just for another episode. Father, thank you for trusting me with this. Father, help me to be a good steward of what is yours, God. Father, would you just speak through me to get to the heart of the listeners, God?

And, father, would you open up my heart? Would you open up the listener's heart? Would you open up our ears, God, just to hear you and to receive from you, God? Father, this is a platform for you to speak to your children, for you to uplift and encourage us all. And so, father, through this episode, would we just get your heart?

Would we hear your would we hear your voice and what you're doing, Lord? God, we thank you that you love us all, and, God, that you're taking us all through a personalized journey. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Okay. So I wanna start this episode kind of talking about my life. Just a big part of my journey. So talking about the mountains and valleys. Right? Those mountains are kind of more the highs in our in our lives where things are amazing, things are going great.

And then you have the valleys. And life is gonna be full of both, both extremes. We're gonna have both extremes, and we're also gonna be times where we're caught in the middle. And I kind of want to talk about one of the more valleys in my life. So I am a huge sports fan.

Sports are a huge part of my life. Sports are the career I want and that I'm pursuing right now in school is centered around sports. And even when I was a kid, sports made up a huge part of my life. And so injuries are a big part of my story and a valley in my life because sports, as I said, are a huge part. And so when I'm injured and I can't play, that's a huge valley in my life.

And so in grade 7, which was, man, probably like 10 or 11 years ago, I was a track and field athlete. I was a middle middle distance and cross country runner. And so my mom and I went to a meet in Winnipeg. At that time in grade 7, I was probably the most athletic I'd ever been. I was running my best times at that meet. I ran my best times, and no actual injury happened at the meet itself. But my mom and I traveled home, like a day or 2. The the day after the meet, we traveled home. And that next morning, I got up, went to go walk upstairs to have breakfast, and something in my body was just different. No injury happened at the meet as I was saying.

Nothing happened in the car. Nothing happened when we got home. I just woke up the next morning, and I just felt different. My hips were just so sore. I was limping. Walking was hard, and I just had no explanation. And, obviously, I just hoped, k, maybe just take it easy the next few days. Hopefully, this goes away. Do some stretching, whatnot. Nothing ever actually went away.

And so my parents took me to physio, and I did that for 6 months. Basically, the physio told me just get stronger, get more flexible, And she gave me stuff to do, and I did it. And nothing happened at all. I didn't really get any better. The injury was still there.

And so some friends some family friends suggested to try out try out a chiropractor. My dad has had issues with his back, and he was always told to stay away from chiros. So he was super skeptical, but we ended up trusting trusting the trusting this family friend and went and saw a chiro. And so I go in my first meeting with him, and he starts thinking about, like, scoliosis. And so he sends me for x-rays, and we come back and, like, yep, there's scoliosis, which is just an abnormal curve in the spine.

I don't remember to what degree it was, but, like, it wasn't super horrible, but it was definitely an issue. And so I started seeing him lots, started exercising and whatnot. I had lots of prayer for it as well. And through the prayer through going to him, the curve in the spine, It actually went down and my scoliosis reduced. But I was still dealing with the injury.

I was still struggling. I still felt restricted in movement and so I was confused. I was frustrated. I didn't know what was actually going on eventually I was able to get back to the point where I was able to play sports again and the first opportunity I had to play sports again, I jumped at it. I missed being on the track.

I missed being on the court. I missed being on the field. And so as soon as I could get back into everything I did. And, basically, for 5 years, my life looked like playing sports even though I felt super restricted and didn't feel the same. I would just play sports to the best my to the best of my ability until I physically couldn't.

And then when I physically couldn't, I would go back to Chiro, and I would see him and meet with him until I was back at a point where I could play sports again. And as soon and then the first instance which I could play sports, I would get right back into it and then play again until I physically couldn't. And that was basically my life for 5 years. Play until I couldn't, rehab, and then get back to playing. I never properly rehabbed the injury, which is definitely an issue and something on my part that I should have done better.

But the issue was is that nobody could tell me what was going on. Nobody could tell me what was wrong. It was always, yeah, scoliosis, bad back, which is true. But nothing was working and actually getting me further than I needed to go and get in getting me back. And so even though I wanted to rehab properly and do all the things, nobody could tell me what was going on.

So I said I could rehab what was actually going on because we didn't know. And in January 2020 is when things got the worst they had ever been. Again, I don't know what happened. There wasn't any I didn't like slip or fall or have an injury. It's just things just progressively started to get worse and worse and worse and worse.

And then January 2020 hits, and I had the biggest setback that I've ever had. Like, normally through when when I'd have setbacks with the injury before, like, I'd still be able to walk. I'd still be able to get around. Yeah. I had a limp.

It was super restrictive. I wasn't able to run or anything. But in January 2020, I was at the point where, like, I couldn't walk. Like, I had to be supporting myself with either having my hand on a wall or using crutches to get around. It was frustrating because it's again, there's nothing that I did to get to this point.

It just would just happen. And so that was probably the like, talking about the valleys, like, that's probably the lowest. That's probably one of the lowest valleys that I've ever been through in my life. And Yeah, like my parents had to move me upstairs because I just couldn't do stairs I Had to drop a class I was taking at university because just getting around the university was too difficult and this class is in a faraway building. And I'm like, I just can't.

Luckily, I didn't need the class, so it was okay. And it was it was a super frustrating time because I wanted to be playing sports. I wanted to be playing Frisbee. I just wanted to move freely without having any restrictions or pain, and it was just super frustrating. It was, again, frustrating just not having answers.

Like, that's always been the my biggest frustration with it. Like, yeah, I can deal with pain. I can deal with doing exercises and and getting back, but it's just the frustration of not knowing what's going on that really got me. And so at that time of January 2020, another family friend had another chiropractor that he recommended. So we went and saw this guy.

He started looking at some new things, started doing some new tests. I don't remember exactly what he did. I know he sent me to a neurologist, and they kind of checked over some things, found nothing. So again, it was at that point where I just want answers. I just want to know what's going on.

Because I felt that, like, if we can get an answer of what's going on, okay, now we can come up with a solution to fix it. But that was always the problem. Nobody could figure out what was going on. Going to this chiropractor, we were able to get back to the point where I was kinda back to, like, my normal self. I'm doing some air quotes, like, my normal self where, yeah, I can walk around.

I can run. But I've always felt super restricted in movement ever since that that track meet. But, anyways, I don't remember how this came about, but I was sent to some doctor. She may have been a specialist. I don't remember exactly what she was or even how I got referred there.

But I went and saw her, and she asked if anybody's ever tested me or thought about FAI, which is femoral acetabler impingement. I'll give you a quick anatomy lesson. I encourage you just to Google it because it's a lot easier. But anyways, like, the femur which is the long bone in your leg, the the top of it is basically a ball. And that connect and that ball is what connects into the hip socket.

And so it's a ball and socket joint. And so the ball of my femur, the head of my femur is what it's called, has a bump on it on both sides. And so my hip doesn't actually roll properly within the hip joint because of that bump. And so because it doesn't roll properly, it wears away at the cartilage within my hip, which is called osteoarthritis. And so she's like, yeah.

Has anybody ever tested you for this? Has anybody thought about this? I'm like, no. She's like, k. I'm gonna send you for some x rays, and we're and we're gonna look at this. So she sent me for the she sends me for the x rays, and the x rays come back. It's like, yep. This this is what it is. This is what I see. And she's like, good news.

There's injections which we can do, I think, cortisone injections. I should know that, but I don't remember. Anyways, she's like, we can do injections for when you're, like, feeling super stiff and you have setbacks. Like, there are other things we can do to help with that. But but then she said, but there's also a specialist here in Regina, probably the best in Saskatchewan.

This is what he deals with. This is his specialty. And I remember her saying if anybody is gonna to be able to help you, it's this guy. And so I walked out of that room so happy smiling because it's like, yes, this is all that I've wanted. I've just wanted an answer.

I've just wanted a solution. And so so she refers me off to see this guy, and I get in pretty quick. Like, I don't I don't remember how long it was, but I swear I saw the guy quick. And so the night before I go to see the specialist, I am so happy. Like, I can't sleep because I'm like, man, just thinking, like, what is my athletic potential gonna be?

Like, I'm able to play sports. Like, was it I was able to play at a level, like, Yeah. I I was happy with, but it's, like, man, without ever having any restrictions because I knew because I'm like, oh, yeah. This is gonna be solved. I was ready to do surgery. I was ready to do whatever it takes because I'm like, I just want this gone. I want to feel freedom in my movement. I don't want to feel restricted. I don't want setbacks. And so I go to see this guy and He looks at the x rays.

He does his own tests and he confirms. Yeah. You have femoral acetabler impingement He's like normally for people we can do surgery and just wear off the bumps and I'm like, yes, do it. Let's do it. Like, I I don't care what the recovery process is. I want to do it. And then he says, but I'm not gonna do surgery with you because The osteoarthritis in your hip joint is already bad enough that doing surgery wouldn't do anything So I'm like, okay, so then what what are my options? He basically says there's really nothing I can do for you he told me all you can do is stay as strong as you can continue to move and Whatnot just keep keep your hips strong keep your muscles strong and delay a hip replacement That was his advice. That's what he said. And then my heart dropped so fast.

There isn't a lot that makes me cry. The Holy Spirit may makes me cry a lot and injuries and complications make me cry. Like, I remember back in January 2020, I was just trying to do everything I can to do my exercises, and I just remember I was just alone and just crying because just movement was just so tough and just the easiest of movements that I was doing was just so tough, and I'm like, I just can't. And I just remember I just remember crying and then my dad coming and just giving me a hug and telling me, you know what? Let's just keep on working.

Everything's gonna be fine. And I I remember that, and I had lots of moments like that with the injury. But the but this moment, when the specialist told me that, that's a moment that really made me cry. I had to go to work the next sorry. I had to go to work right after that.

And I got to the job site, and I was getting ready to get out of my car. And I'm like, man, I just can't. I just need to just I just didn't know what to do because I'm like, I was in such expectation that I was gonna have a solution. And then I walk away that there's nothing that can be done. So that was that was super frustrating.

And so, basically, that's been my journey with injuries. Like, I've taken the specialist advice, and I've been getting a lot stronger. Doing physical labor and landscaping has really helped me, and I'm at a much better place with the injuries than I've ever been. Like, I'm happy with where my athleticism is. Obviously, I can always be better.

I can I can always be improving, but it's been a long time since I've had a serious setback? I still have setbacks. I still get sore. I still get tight and but I've gotten to a point where I've gotten a lot better through these injuries and so that's a valley in my life that God has really taught me a lot through Values are inevitable. Values are gonna happen for everybody.

We're always gonna have suffering. There's always gonna be painful things that come up in life. Life is not perfect. Life is not all butterflies and rainbows. There's gonna be hard things in life.

And so the question that the father has really been highlighting to me and what I really want to talk about is how do you navigate the valleys? How we navigate the valleys is so important. And so the father's been taking me through Romans. I've been pairing Romans with it a right now media series where I watch it right now media series, and then I go and read the chapter and kind of just journal about it. And through Romans the father's really been highlighting Suffering and the importance of handling the valleys being able to hand handle the suffering and So I want to spend some time in Romans 5 and Romans 8 So the book of Romans was written to the Jews living in Rome right the Jews were God's chosen people They were the ones who had the law of Moses, and their religion was built on earning their salvation by trying to follow that law as to the best of their ability.

And so Paul writes, the book of Romans. He like writes them this letter telling them that honestly you guys have it wrong. There's nothing you can do to be good enough because we all fall short of the glory of God. We can never do enough to be right with God. And so he talks about grace and Jesus dying, and that's why those things are so important because we're justified before God because Jesus took on our sin.

Not because we do all the right things and we follow the law to a t. It's because of our faith in Jesus that we are saved. And so Paul is really shaking up the way that the Jews in Rome think. And Paul even talks about Abraham and talks about how Abraham was called righteous before God because of his faith. Right?

Abraham didn't have the law of Moses. Moses came after Abraham. But yet Abraham was still called the righteous because he had faith. And so that's just a quick summary of the first four chapters of Romans. And then Paul writes Romans 5.

I'm just gonna read it quickly. We're I'm gonna read verses 1 through 5. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through through our lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we celebrate in hope of God of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations.

Knowing that tribulations bring about perseverance and perseverance, proven character, and proven character hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us. So the first word in Romans 5 is therefore so basically that tells us okay, look back at what was just said so Romans 1 through 5 telling us you're justified through faith alone, not by works and because of that because of being justified by faith we have Romans 5 which is telling us to celebrate in our tribulations So when things aren't going great when we're not the absolute perfect Christian, which will never be We can celebrate why? Because it's not about doing the perfect thing. It's not about being a perfect human We can celebrate in our tribulations because we're justified by our faith, not not by our circumstance and what's going great.

We're justified by faith alone. And then Paul also tells us that we can celebrate in our tribulations. Why? Because we know that tribulations bring about perseverance, and that perseverance brings about proven character. And that proven character is what gives us hope, which is what gives us the hope to keep on going to keep on trusting God through the trials, through the tribulations, through the suffering.

I also really like Romans 8. I was continuing to read through Romans, and I got to Romans 8. And I'm like, man, this is perfect. Toss this into the podcast episode. So I'm gonna read verses 31 to 32 and then verses 35 to 39.

So Romans 8 says this, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And 35 to 39 say this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Right. So Paul talks about it even more that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are justified through our faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing can take that away. Nothing can separate us.

So when we're going through trials, when we're going through tribulation, when we're going through suffering, where it feels like the whole world's collapsing, where it feels like the world's against us, where it feels like God's silent and is far from us, God tells us no. Look at what my word says. If God is for us, who can be against us? The world cannot be against us. Your suffering cannot be against you.

Your trials cannot be against you. Why? Because God is for you. He gave up his own son because he is for you. He gave up His own Son so that you could be with Him.

And so is He not gonna graciously give us everything we need? Right? This verse says, How will He not also with with him graciously give us all things? And not all things that we think we need, all things that we pray for, but he's gonna graciously give us all the things that we need. Because who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Nothing. Tribulation can't, distress can't, persecution can't, famine can't, nakedness can't, danger can't, sword can't. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. So we can have hope, and we can celebrate in our tribulations because God's word is so true. Because of these things that Paul has talked about, we can celebrate.

We can be okay with suffering. We can be okay with tribulation. We could be okay with trials because we know God's word is above it all. So does that mean that the pain gets taken away? Does that mean that the suffering that the trial ends? No, not at all. We're gonna go through hard things and life's gonna be tough. But the encouragement is that through it God's gonna use it. Right? That's what Romans 5 talks about.

Tribulations brings perseverance perseverance proven character and proven character hope. You're gonna be built through the suffering through the trial. When when we give it to God and when we let him do the work he takes all things into account and he works all things out for the for the glory of those who love him He he works at all From the highest of the highs, he uses all those things. From the lowest to lows, he uses all those things. As I'm going through the right now media series, there's a few quotes that the guy said that I just loved and that I wrote down that I want to share.

He said how well you understand the gospel is Demonstrated by the attitude you have in suffering. He's also saying that we need afflictions. We need trials. We need suffering to build us up and finally he said don't have your confidence in feeling But on the hope that God gives us through the gospel again, it's all going back to what is the truth of the gospel and letting that surround our lives and So I quickly just want to read my journal and what God is speaking to me through these sections Don't give up. Keep on going This is what I hear throughout this part of Romans life is gonna be hard So how do you navigate that?

How well we understand the heart, the will of God for our life is evident in how we handle and our attitude and suffering. How resilient are you? How well can you handle the pain? Not in the sense of stuffing it down and letting it negatively affect you. How well do you give the negatives to God and let him work it for good?

The person that is good at that will see insane growth and fruit in their life. Pain and trials suck. They're not easy. But when we know the scriptures, when we know the character of God, when we know the heart of God, it changes how we handle everything. The scriptures don't teach us to run from pain and trials.

The scriptures teach us to welcome them with joy to celebrate them. It teaches us to learn how to properly handle and deal with them. And so tying it back to my story and the suffering that I went through with injuries. So before 2020, I was super negative with injuries. I get so frustrated with God.

I get so frustrated with the world because all I wanted was to be pain free and to be back playing sports. I just wanted the injury gone. And so anytime I had a setback, it would send me into a dark place where I would just be looking at how crappy life is, and it would really affect the way that I looked at the world and looked at my life. And then 2020 comes along, and as I was saying, that was the worst setback I'd ever been through. But my mentality changed in 2020 at the time I need it.

I needed God more than ever and So I started relying on God in that time my morning routine in 2020 would look like this Get up, put in my headphones, put on worship music, and pray my way to the bathroom because I needed the strength for every step, and I needed to just pray my way through it. So in 2020, even though that was the lowest I've probably ever been, that was the highest , like, spirituality my relationship with God has ever been. Because I had to rely and depend on God so much, my relationship grew so much with him in that time. So as much as that time sucked and it the pain was terrible. It sucked being away from sports.

I am so thankful for that time because of my relationship with Christ now. I wouldn't trade that time. I wouldn't take that time I wouldn't take that time away because I don't believe I'd be where I am today without that time, Right? Romans talks about it. Tribulation, we celebrate in it.

We persevere proving character. My character was built so much through that time, And who I am today is the fruit of that season. So as hard as that season was and the pain took a while to go away, it was a hard season. But my character was built so much through that season, because my focus was on God. And so today, like, as I said, I still go through setbacks.

I still have little setbacks, but not as much, But my mentality is so different with it. It's all centered on God. And so even though I still go through injuries, whenever it happens, it's k, God, giving it to you. Because I know what you've done in my life before, and I trust you to do it again. I trust in who you say in your word, and I'm gonna stand on that.

Your word's gonna be my rock, and that's what I'm gonna stand on. And that's what we need to learn. We're all gonna go through suffering. You may be going through suffering right now. And so my question is, how do you handle it?

We're all gonna go through suffering later on down the road. Again, my question is, how do you handle it? Because how we handle suffering is so important Suffering can be a time of insane growth in our lives, but we need to handle it the right way Before 2020, I didn't handle it the right way. I would look at my circumstance, and I would just get down on myself. But in 2020, I started handling it the right way and just giving it to God and looking to him.

And the fruit in my life is evident of that. And so some practical tips that I have for when you're going through suffering, when you're going through things, is give it to God. Is that super practical in, like, a, b, c, d step? No. But that's the best advice I can give you.

Give it to God. To fight the forces of this world, we need a force on our side that is more powerful than that. And the only force that that is is God. And so you need him on your side fighting with you and when you accept him into your heart, he's on your side but we also need to take the steps to put it in his hands and to rely on him to rely on his strength through the suffering. And so that takes me to my second my second tip.

Prioritize your time with God in the suffering seasons. Invest into the one who's gonna bring you life. When you're going through suffering, it could be so easy to look at how terrible life is. I know because that's my natural response. But when I take a step out of that and I go to God and I look at and I ask him to show me things through his lens, it completely changes the way I view it.

Again, it doesn't take the suffering away, but it changes my mentality through it, which is the most important part. Another thing I try to do is gratitude. I try to practice gratitude as often as I can. When going through suffering, sometimes the only gratitude I have is, god, you've been faithful before. I know you're gonna do it again.

But even just that and thinking about that changes my mentality. When you try to focus on what's going good in life when thing when things are bad, I think, for me, that gives me a confidence of hope in, like, k. We're good. let's keep on going. Let's keep on pushing.

It helps me see the way God sees things. And so even though, again, it doesn't go away, my my mentality just changes. One last tip that I have is get with community, get with mentors. Humans aren't meant to do life alone. We're not meant to journey alone.

So go to the people that God has put in your life that you trust, that know your situation, that can speak into things and help encourage you and help you walk. Get get with mentors who can give you wisdom, who can speak God's wisdom into your life and really help you. We're not meant to fight battles alone, and we have God on our side who's our ultimate fighter who fights for us. But God blesses us with people in our life to help us fight that that will contend with us. Right?

Proverbs talks about as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. We need people. We need community. God bless us with people to help us. So rely on those people. So I pray that God spoke something to you. I know he's continuing even just talking through this for me, he's continuing to hit that point home. Suffering is okay. There's nothing wrong with pain. There's nothing wrong with suffering.

But continue to know my heart in it and trust me. And so, I want to thank you all for listening. Thank you all for tuning in to this show. Man, whenever I think about this show and I whenever I go to record, I just get so stirred up. I'm so excited what God's doing in my life and what he's doing in your life.

And, again, I'm praying that God spoke some spoke some to you today, something that you can take away and go ahead and apply. Your support would be awesome. If you could leave a review and a rating on the show, that would be amazing. You can share this podcast with other people that you know. That'd be awesome as well.

We're also on social media on Instagram and TikTok at the mountains and valleys podcast. That's where I'm gonna be posting all of our show updates, clips from episodes, extra content. So if you wanna stay up to date with the show, give us a follow on there. Again, I just wanna thank you all for listening. I love you all. I'm praying for you all, and we're gonna catch you all next time.