Dr. A'Shellarien Addison uses mountains and valleys as metaphors for life's emotional peaks and lows. She introduces the idea of "faith muscles": exercising faith in God during both the highs and lows builds spiritual strength, like a workout. Healing is a process that requires grace, balance across physical and emotional health, and recognizing God's unchanging presence through every rise and fall.
Chapters
It's a new day and it's a new opportunity to allow healing into your heart and into your mind. Today's topic is going to be mountains and valleys. Mountains and valleys. If you see behind me, in Hawaii there's lots of mountains, right? You see the mountain, and then if you look on the bottom, you see the valley. And in life, we have mountaintops experiences and we have valley experiences. So when it comes to trauma, the challenge is moving through the mountaintop experience and the valley experience. And so the mountaintop experience, you say, man, that is amazing, that is amazing. I think you might say the valley experience, man, that, that is rough. And then the ebb and flow of going up and down and up and down. Some days you're up and some days you're down and And some days you're— you have joy, and some days you have sadness. And so life has a way of bringing that pendulum of emotion. It's like one day you're feeling good, the next day you can't get out of the bed. And what do you do? How do you— how do you figure out the balance, right? We're looking for homeostasis. That's a medical term for just balancing your body. That's emotional and physical and mental and spiritual. You're looking for that balance in your life. Because you got the ups and you got the downs. Here's what I will tell you: give yourself the grace and the space to go through the mountaintop experience and go through the valley experience. Now, we use this analogy of mountaintop experience being like the epitome of the pinnacle of joy and happiness, and that's like the good times in your life. And then we use the analogy of the valley to be the lowest times in your life. Now, sometimes the valley experience can be beneficial because that's where your spiritual muscles are, are developed. That's where your faith muscles are flexed. It's in the valley. Now think about it, right? When you're climbing up the mountain, you're also using your faith muscles. You're also using your faith muscles when you're coming down from the mountain. You're using your faith muscles. If anybody's done the StairMaster, you know that going up and going down there's still some muscle development. So as you think about the valleys, you think about the mountains, think about what it takes to get to the mountaintop. Think about what it takes to get down into the valley. It's the same faith in God because you believe in God for the amazing thing to happen in the mountaintop, and then you believe in God to keep you in your valley experience. And so that same faith muscle is being used whether it's in the top or whether it's in the bottom. And so the exercise of your faith, that is where the challenge is. How do I exercise my faith? If you say, God, give me the ability to give, give me the ability to serve, give me the ability to be who you've called me to be, you got to know that God is not going to say like, change up, umbo, and now all of a sudden you're the servant, you're the best. God's going to give you opportunity to exercise that muscle. So that you'll be able to stretch it, so that as you're going up the mountaintop, your muscles are being developed. As you're coming down into the valley, your muscles are being developed. You know, healing is a process. It's a process. And the way you go up into joy and the way you come down into sadness is a muscle. And so you have to say to yourself, where is God in the midst of this? God is a keeper. God is a keeper, whether you're in the mountaintop or whether you're in the valley. So you keep holding on to God's unchanging hand, whether you're going up or whether you're going down. God's hand is going to be with you either way. Keep that as your focus, that you're not alone, that God is with you as you go up the mountaintop and as you go down. You know, gravity says what goes up must come down, so you got to have some balance in your faith. But you know, as you're going up to that mountaintop, you're going to relish in it. You're going to hold on to God's unchanging hand because surely there's going to be a time to come down. So you keep holding on to God's unchanging hand and know that God is with you every step of the way. So thank you for joining me for a healing moment with Dr. A'Shellarien Addison Addison Addison. We'll talk soon.
