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Yesterday I learned the difference between massage and therapeutic massage! Around Father’s Day when our youngest son, David, was visiting from Atlanta, our local oldest son, Mark, referred him to Mark’s massage therapist for David’s sciatica. The visit helped. A couple days ago, as I was getting over a cold with its accompanying aches, June said, “Why don’t you go see Mark’s massage therapist. You’ll feel better. She was wrong. It’s the next morning, and I’m still hurting.

Massage therapist Dave (not to be confused with my son of the same name!) doesn’t want you to feel better while he’s doing the massage. He wants you to be better. “Stick with me for four sessions, and I’ll fix these problems with your neck muscles. You can’t look over your shoulder, can you? Would you like to?” If yes, then be prepared for pain.

He worked on my neck for an hour, and none of it was pleasant! The second hour he worked on everything else. “I’m just going to work you; I’m not going to hurt you,” he said about the second hour. 15 minutes in I said, “If your objective is not to hurt me, you’re not succeeding.” He replied, “You think I’m a pain in the neck don’t you?” I said, “Yes!” He said, “Thank you.”

As I said, Dave wants you to be better. He’s into transformation. Now I have to do the neck exercises he’s given me, and we have the next appointment on the calendar, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

But I get it. I’m a Navigator. Old school Navigators were known for being somewhat hard on each other. They liked such verses as:

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. Proverbs 27.5 – 7, ESV)

The idea was that your friend will tell you what you need to hear. If you’re hungry to grow, then “bitter” words of constructive criticism will be sweet.

I didn’t even know there was anything wrong with my neck! But Dave is intent on fixing it because “That’s what I do.” 

About a year ago, a new friend opened our conversation with the complaint that his in-laws don’t respect him. He didn’t know that the problem was in his relationship with God. If he felt loved by God, it wouldn’t matter if someone respected him or not. So I helped him fix that because “That’s what I do.” 

Transformation hurts! I had my right knee replaced last year, and there are two phases to that drill. Phase 1: why did I let them do that to me? Phase 2: why didn’t I have that done sooner? I’m happily in phase 2 now, but there was a rough 4 weeks post surgery! There will be a minimum of a rough four sessions with Dave, but when it doesn’t hurt as much, I will have made progress! I’m looking forward to that.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12.11, ESV)