For the last year, I have undertaken a fairly intense physical rehab program to relearn how to walk. I wasn’t in an accident, I didn’t suffer a major fall, and didn’t experience a significant injury that required intense and immediate rehabilitation for basic functioning. Instead, I am undoing ten years of damage caused by a seemingly small ankle injury that I was convinced did not need rest or rehab and that I believed would eventually heal on its own. While the immediate pain and swelling did go away with time, the injury didn’t exactly heal: scar tissue formed, my body adjusted to compensate for the damage, and now, ten years later, I am relearning to walk because the adjustments I made to compensate became normal, throwing my body out of balance and causing significant pain.

In so many ways, my ankle injury and rehab experience mirror the spiritual life! In moments of spiritual injury—wounding or sin—how many times have we relied on ourselves, convinced that the problem is too small or insignificant for the Lord, filled with embarrassment or shame because of the circumstances, or adamant that we do not have the time or energy for the rest and/or rehab required to heal properly? Over time, we adjust, and this self-reliance becomes our norm, warping our hearts, throwing off the equilibrium of our spiritual lives, and causing significant pain.

Thankfully, we do not have to live in this place! We have a Great Physician who wants to meet us in the moment of spiritual injury, regardless of how small, insignificant, or shameful we think that moment is. If, like my ankle injury, we don’t seek care at the time of injury and go through a season of self-reliance and spiritual self-medication, the Great Physician is ready and waiting to resuscitate and rehabilitate our hearts as soon as we cry out to Him.

If you are ignoring what hurts, convinced it will go away on its own, relying on yourself instead of seeking treatment, or self-medicating to make the pain go away, then it is time to get help. The Divine Physician can be found in the confessional, in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures, and in prayer—He is ready and waiting for you.