May of this year was tough for me. On May 1st, I wrecked our mini van. It was the first major car accident I’ve ever been it. I was in a multiple car accident and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I walked away perfectly fine, but my van took all the impact. Obviously, I wish the accident could’ve been avoided, but I was so thankful to be okay.

A few days after that, I came down with a severe cold complete with laryngitis and a severe sore throat and cough. Within a few days, I developed a terrible ear infection in my right ear. It was pretty excruciating and was the first severe ear infection I ever remember having in my lifetime. The pain/pressure lasted for several weeks despite multiple trips to the doctor, two antibiotics, a steroid pack, Flonase spray, Zyrtec, Mucinex, Tylenol, Advil, and 2 bags of cough drops.

On May 22nd, I actually had a tube put in my ear to try to drain my ear and help it start to heal. The tube helped only minimally. My ear had constant tinnitus, popping, pressure, and pain not to mention that I couldn’t hear much out of it.  I started to feel discouragement setting in. I didn’t know what else to do. The inability to get relief from the ear infection was weighing on me and draining me. I decided to try to make another appointment with the ENT and was told I’d have to wait for weeks to get another appointment. I’d asked friends and family members to pray and I know they had been, but no relief came.  

I’m not a person who cries at the drop off a hat, but after weeks of being sick, one afternoon in late May, I went into the bathroom locked the door and cried and cried. I asked God to please heal my ear and give me some relief. I cried a lot. When the tears finally stopped, I noticed that the pressure seemed a little better in my ear. I wondered if it were my imagination or all the crying had loosened something and had begun to unclog my ear. It didn’t get better overnight but after another week or so, I could tell my ear was starting to improve. Before it got better, I could hear a constant swooshing sound which seemed to be in rhythm with my heartbeat in my ear. It was so strange and very annoying, however ever so slowly the swooshing sound began to lessen, the pressure and pain slowly got better, until finally one day, it stopped. 

Every day now, when I wake up, I tell God thank you for hearing the prayers and healing my ear. My hearing is not quite a 100% but it is much improved. I will never take healthy ears for granted again. It truly seemed that my healing really began with the tears.

Maybe that sounds strange and I’m not saying it is necessarily good to cry for days on end, but sometimes instead of keeping the emotions all bottled up, letting the tears flow really can lead us into the healing process. For me, I don’t even realize I’m holding tears in at times, but I think this has taught me to be more aware of the emotions under the surface.  While emotions and feelings shouldn’t control our every thought and action, experiencing, processing, and working through them is truly healthy. In my case, I think it really helped me to heal. 

God knew what He was doing when he created us with so much complexity and intricacy including our emotions. In every trial, in every sickness, in each problem we face, He’s there gently guiding us. He hears us when we call out to Him. He sees our tears. He answers our prayers. He is always there working on our behalf. He heals us and I’m so thankful. 

Blessings.

Your friend,

Tiffany