Lately, my lower back has been hurting me. I am not sure when I injured it or what exactly was going on but all the stretching and Aleve and essential oils were not doing anything. So yesterday I took my first visit to the chiropractor. They took a bunch of X-rays and I did all kinds of movement and reflex tests. Then I laid on this roller table for about ten minutes and enjoyed a bunch of wheels rolling up and down my back. Today I went back to talk to the doctor. He showed me all the X-rays and explained what all was going on. It was pretty wild to see when my neck should be and where it actually was. Also interesting to hear that when it is in the correct place, it perfectly supports the 12lbs of your head. But as it gets out of alignment, the weight on that lower point exponentially increases. So where I am, it’s like trying to support 30lbs of weight. The same is true with my lower back. Only that’s even more significant because your lower spine is supporting a good third of your body weight. So the more it is out, the greater weight it has to support. Now that we know all this, there are adjustments and exercises that can be made and done to correct the issue and get things back to the place of proper alignment.
And so it is with all of life. When I am out of alignment spiritually, it messes up so many other aspects of my life. When I am not in the word, or spending time with God in prayer and connected times of worship, I feel a disconnect and a distance. That translates to feeling pressure of trying to make things happen on my own. It affects other relationships and friendships. I might be more snappy or irritated because I’m feeling pain or discouragement. And when I don’t know what the problem is, I will often just push on through and keep going, hoping it will eventually get better. But if I don’t stop and take stock of where I am – taking a spiritual X-ray, as it were, then I really have no discernible way of knowing what’s wrong or how to fix it.
Londa Harwell recently spoke and put it like is: “The battle is in our minds. We struggle for significance. But we live in an imperfect world surrounded by wounded people. Any place where our heart hurts, any negative belief we have, stems from a lie we have accepted as truth in a moment of wounding. Doubts, fears, anger, etc. will begin when we are young, and by the time we are adults, we have negative beliefs in place that we will either struggle to overcome, or just learn to accept them as fact and do our best to move forward. Then we feel like our dreams are always clouded and hope seems elusive.” That’s being out of alignment. And that is what St. Paul speaks of in Romans 12 when he says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Londa said that we need “To train our minds to stop gravitating to negative defaults and turn to the Lord to strengthen our minds to agree with His. Peace and joy are our goals. The freer we are of negative strongholds, the better we are able to walk, then run, then take off and fly into the destiny we are called to.”
This takes self examination. This takes intentional steps to come back into proper alignment through corrective exercises and adjustments. Whether it is meeting together and confessing with a trusted friend, studying the Word together, meditating on the scripture and journaling and listening to the Lord, seeking counseling, spending time in uninterrupted worship and prayer – all of those are ways to start correcting areas that are out of alignment. The Holy Spirit is an amazing chiropractor, and he can help you get back into alignment if you partner with Him and listen to His voice.