Have you ever had one of those moments where you were listening to something like your favorite podcast and something really profound strikes you. Well today that happened as I was listening to one of mine and I wanted to share it with you. The person speaking was sharing a story about whitewater rafting with his wife. As they headed down river the raft they were in flipped and all kinds of chaos ensued. The story carries on talking about how they came within inches of death however they eventually managed to reach shore safely.

After everything that transpired the last thing he wanted to do was get back into that raft and continue down the river, yet it was the only option because there was no other way out. He offered to pay the guide to have a helicopter fly in and pick them up but the canyon walls were too steep! There was no other way of walking out until they got several miles down river, and they had to face some very nasty rapids called the Devil’s Mouth! Facing no other choice they got back into the raft and continued down river.

So often the only option one faces while fighting a chronic illness is to move straight forward and take on the illness in a battle that most of us would rather not fight. We see that difficult path that lies ahead, and it scares us to the extent that we don’t want to get back in the boat. It takes every ounce of strength to tell yourself that your going to be ok, and not to let the fear of the unknown make decisions for you! It takes faith and believing in yourself to continue your journey through whatever you might have to face. Sometimes those roadblocks that stand in our way are there for reasons unknown but you can’t let fear stop you from moving ahead. Sometimes you just have to say  “I’m not going to let fear stop me from taking the next step” or from “accomplishing a goal”!

What I kept thinking through the entire podcast was I’m going through all of this for a reason! The pain, suffering, surgeries, and everything else CRPS throws at me! I know in my heart that I’m having to go through all of this so that something good will come out of all of it in the end. Even the ability to be able to speak into another person’s life is a powerful tool that I have been given. At the start of all of this I felt weak and beaten down. Now I feel as though I can take on anything life throws at me, regardless of what the challenge is. We don’t always see odvious things that are sittings right in front of us because we get too caught up in what’s happening in the now!

The message today is pretty simple sometimes we only have one choice and that’s to keep moving forward and face whatever lays ahead. You don’t know what might come out of your experiences!