One thing I learned from a mentor long ago was that God will never give you more than you can handle, and that He will walk beside you through every storm. I also learned that many of the trials we face in life are experiences that help us become more compassionate and understanding toward others.
That truth became very real to me over the past four weeks as I recovered from major knee replacement surgery.
If I am honest, I never fully understood it when someone talked about suffering from anxiety attacks or overwhelming anxiety. I sympathized, but I had never personally experienced it myself.
These past weeks changed that.
The pain after surgery was so intense at times that I found myself sitting in my car in the middle of the night, simply driving because I could not calm my mind or body enough to rest. I couldn’t sleep because the pain made it impossible to get comfortable, and the lack of sleep only made everything worse. It became a vicious cycle.
There were moments when I felt trapped, almost as if I was suffocating and couldn’t escape the overwhelming feelings rushing through me. Those are feelings I never want to experience again.
Thankfully, I finally reached out to my surgeon, who adjusted my pain medication, and I also began taking an over-the-counter sleep aid. After a few nights of decent sleep, my body and mind slowly began to settle down, and I finally felt myself calming again.
This experience taught me something important: sometimes we cannot truly understand another person’s struggle until we walk through something similar ourselves. What once seemed difficult to comprehend suddenly became very real to me.
I now have a much deeper compassion for those who battle anxiety every day.
Most importantly, I was reminded once again that God never left me during those long nights. Even in moments when I felt overwhelmed, exhausted, and afraid, He was still walking beside me through every painful step of recovery.
Sometimes our hardest seasons become the very thing God uses to soften our hearts and help us better love and understand others.
“Fear not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you, Yes I will help you” — Isaiah 41:10
Even in our hardest moments, God remains beside us, strengthening us one step at a time
