Variety: Luke 13v11–13

There appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  Luke 13:11–13 

Nadia Bolz-Weber considers how healing can be a painful process:  

I found myself wondering if it hurt … not just the pain of standing up straight for the first time in nearly two decades, but because it can sting to be healed—to be freed from what binds us especially if we overly identify with our afflictions. It can hurt to be healed and freed from the things that we think make us special. It can hurt to be fully seen even if it is the thing we long for most. Like blood returning to frostbitten fingers…. 

Perhaps you are pulled down by the spirit of perfectionism 

or by the spirit of addiction 

or by the spirit of comparison 

or by the spirit of unmet expectations 

or by the spirit of arrogance 

or by the spirit of self-pity or self-loathing 

or pulled down by the spirit of a world that will break your heart and tell you it doesn’t matter (I myself have felt the gravitational pull of each at different times), but none of that is who you are. 

I do not know what you have healed from, or what current pain that, God willing, you will be healing from in the future. 

But no matter what it is in your life that is seen or unseen by others, no matter what you have already healed from, no matter what pain remains hidden, no matter no matter no matter, God loves you too much to leave you unseen and (at least) emotionally unhealed.