Sunday, February 27, 2011

Playing Hurt.

The heart of a warrior is what I'm after. And this week, I've learned that the heart of a warrior must be honest and it must choose to be humble, even when it feels humiliating.

In the past few days, I've had to look at myself in the mirror and say, "This is what actually happened, Heidi. This is the real reason; this is what has been going on all along. Plain and simple - you're scared."

While reading a book for my creative writing class entitled, "The War of Art," I ran across a small paragraph. It was as if this small paragraph was a mirror that the book held up in order to show me myself.

The paragraph said this:

"What are we trying to heal, anyway? The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt."

He has to play hurt.

It was a wake-up to reality for me.

It was a kick-in-the-rear to stop blaming, stop rationalizing to myself, stop making excuses, and stop waiting for my emotional hurts to be all healed and fixed in order to move forward in something that I still want to do.

Maybe outside factors actually were a part of making one of my biggest joys turn into one of my biggest fears.

But a warrior can't always, if ever, choose the conditions in which he fights his battles. He must simply fight with no excuses. The conditions around him, or perhaps, even the conditions inside his own heart, may make things more difficult, but he still must choose to fight.

It's time for me to step up and start facing one of my biggest fears and not waiting until all the wounds are healed because waiting for complete healing has simply become an excuse for procrastination.

It's time to play hurt.


What about YOU? Do you ever rationalize your fears?

4 comments:

  1. "he has to play hurt." wow. i'mma be mulling that over for a while. because i know it big-time applies to me. thank you, heidi.

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  2. Thank YOU, Alece.
    You are quite an inspiraton to me...praying that God is meeting in this season of your life :-)

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  3. i tend to over-rationalize my fears... but some fears need no rationalizing. some fears are legit and we have to just keep living through them until one day they get up and walk away. And some fears we need to really think if it's worth fearing at all.

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  4. Oh i do...God recently spoke to me as you worship I will heal you...so I must go, I must give, I cannot make excuses or rationalize..the time is now :)

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