Church Worker Wellness – Week 47 devotion: Emotional wellness

“Building Up the Body: Worker-to-Worker” is a series of church worker wellness devotions. Visit lcms.org/wellness for more resources.

By Margy Whitsett, deaconess and hospital chaplain

Change!

It was a bad accident, but it could have been so much worse.

A gremlin lost control on an on-ramp and came directly in front of our van. A semi hit us from behind, spinning us around. Our car was totaled.

But, thankfully, the semi was not loaded, and the driver was able to jackknife the truck instead of hitting us full on.

My husband and I were shaken, whiplashed, and bruised — but alive.

Thanks be to God for hearing our cry, “Jesus, help!”

Nonetheless, we were changed. It was the chiropractor that summed up the impact of the accident on our bodies:

“You’ll never be the same again.”

I was not pleased to hear this. I wanted to be fixed up, put back the way I had been.

There was a woman who encountered Jesus in Mark 5:25–34.

She had been ill for a long time — feminine problems, bleeding, unclean. She had tried all sorts of physicians and had nothing to show for it.

Hope returned when she heard about Jesus, and she just had to try. If she could just touch him, she thought.

And she did. She felt an essential change within herself. She could feel that she had been healed.

She also knew anonymity was not going to work when Jesus asked, “Who touched my garment?”

The woman “came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.”

The truth is, we don’t realize how changed we might be from every event we experience, be it good or ill.

I was changed by our accident and, yes, my body bore the effects.

But I also bear in my body the life-giving change that happened when I was baptized — when Jesus claimed me as His own; when He touched me.

This isn’t just being put back together; it’s being essentially and forever changed.

Jesus says to me, “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Recently, I was reminded again that when Jesus touches you, you’ll never be the same again!

Dear Jesus, thank You for touching me and making my whole life different. I need You to be well. I need You for everything in my life. Make me ever aware of Your presence and help me to turn to You when change comes, whether it is good, hard or feels nearly impossible to bear. In Your name I pray, Amen.

“Building Up the Body: Worker-to-Worker” devotions and prayers will be released Monday mornings on the LCMS Facebook and Twitter pages. Church Worker Wellness devotions will also be archived online.

LCMS church workers and their families are invited to offer encouragement to other workers and families by submitting a 500-word devotion for the Synod’s worker-to-worker wellness devotion series. Email questions and submissions to workerwellness@lcms.org.