I felt exhilarated as I left the steam room. Shifting my focus from the challenges in the room to the words from Scripture kept and encouraged me. My walk with Jesus was not a straight line but I trust Him that whether in the heat room or the steam room, His plans for me are good (Jeremiah 29:11) and that He would not give me more than I could bear (1 Cor. 10:13). These thoughts filled my mind as I walked with Daniel to our next stop. It was a pool. “Step in and dunk yourself under the water. It may feel a bit cold so just step in and do it” were the instructions. This was to close the pores opened in the steam room except instead of using ice, this time it was cold water. I stepped in and all the warm and fuzzy thoughts from the steam room immediately left my mind. The water was cold. Taking a deep breath, I counted to three, dunked myself, and quickly got out while reminding myself that this was good for me. Everything I had experienced so far was working for my good. Where had I heard that before? (Romans 8:28).
Stepping out of the pool, the next stop, finally, was the jacuzzi, where I thought the hydrotherapy treatment would have started. Had I known I would have to go through “trials and challenges” before getting to this point, would I have signed up? I don’t know. In His call to discipleship, Jesus made it clear that it came with a cost: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24, KJV). In other words, to enter into a relationship with Him was not a smooth ride. However, if we suffered with Him, we would also reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:12). One did not come without the other.
Stepping into the jacuzzi was sublime. The bubbling water was warm and I felt like a child in a candy store. The other members of my group were there and we all piled in. In the moment, nothing else mattered; not the heat room, the ice bath, the steam room, or the cold water. Here, in the jacuzzi, it was all worth it to get to this point. Paul reminds us of the same thing in our spiritual walk: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). The Amplified Bible puts it this way, “For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]!” As followers of Jesus, the challenges we face are temporary. However, if we stick with Him, the end of our story is guaranteed to be victorious.
Leaving the jacuzzi after what seemed like hours, I realized I would gladly do hydrotherapy daily if I could. Knowing what was at the end made going through the process somewhat easier. In our Christian walk, there is also a prize at the end if we stay the course. It is a course riddled with the unknown, with many opportunities to leave it. Paul’s words encourage me and I pray they encourage you too: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).
