Joshua Minden (00:00):

Hi, friends. Welcome back to Stories & Other Things Holy! it's episode 20 and it's the first week of Lent. So get ready. We can't wait to share this story with you!

(00:15):

There is something comforting and sad about knowing I'm not the only one tempted to protect and hide my familiar discomforts. Far too often I hear described the impulse to hide, mask and conceal the pains that emerge as a result of the terrible and beautiful realities of life. However, this week as we begin our series of Linin reflections, Carrie and I want to invite you to reflect on what it means to let go of those familiar pains to risk, discomfort, and change. In order to experience release. We also invite you to reflect on the unique role. Each of us is called in the service of life and love to find the pain in one another, to stay with it and to work it to allow for release liberation and healing. I hope you and I will both take seriously the invitation that Terry received in today's story, that we don't have to leave here with our pain. Stories & Other Things Holy.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (01:32):

Stories & Other Things Holy. I can't imagine that I'm not the only fellow that saves the experience of a really good massage, and I'm aware that it's not everybody's bailiwick, and there's all sorts of reasons for discomfort over that prospect, but personally, a really good massage is worth its weight in gold, and they can be sort of expensive. At the time of the story, I didn't have a whole lot of extra cash, so I would love to get a massage, but couldn't do it very often. And I was down at Star Rock. It's a state park, central Illinois, a little tired, but it's a place I fell in love with when I was a little kid. My aunt, my beloved aunt brought me there and I took showers in waterfalls, hiked and climbed, and I just fell in love and the love affair has continued.

(02:35):

So I would go down periodically, stay overnight, do some writing. They have a beautiful lodge with a huge fire and a lot of good hikes. So I'm down there and I see a little advertisement for massage. This is the Midwest. It's a little state Park Lodge, central Illinois. It's one of the last places that massage would come to. So I'm a little shocked and I'm, how is the massage? They're like, oh, it's good. We have two therapists. They're great. And yeah, so I'm like, oh my gosh, massage at Star Brock. Who knew? So I sign up and I go, they have the massage little cabin thing. So I go in there and turns out the massage therapist, and this is such a revealing thing on stereotypes. I'm thinking massage therapist, first of all, female. Secondly, pastoral in nature, et cetera. So the massage therapist answer the door is this huge dude, and he has this handshake that'll make you hesitant, and he just is big.

(03:41):

And I don't know, I just was thrown off. And so we talk and he does, is there anything you spent? And I talked to him a little bit and I'm like, how did you get it to the massage visits? It's like, well, I worked in the steel mills in Northern Indiana. I'm like, yeah, you worked in the steel mills. He just sort of carried himself, I carried the steel mills, then I melt it, then I vent it. Are you following me here? So I'm like, well, how did we get from the steel? He is like, well, the steel mill closed. And my wife and I, we were in need of a job. She had started her own massage therapist business, and it was flourishing. And she's like, if they're going to pay for education and you of any interest at all, you could become a massage therapist and we'd be golden.

(04:29):

He's like, well, you know what? I'm comfortable with this. I like this. It's intriguing to me. So I did. And now here I am like, okay, John, let's do this. Then turns out John is one of the most talented, I can't even describe how skilled he was just really, really good. And I'd gone back maybe three or four times over the course of a year. So we got to know each other. I let him know how much I appreciated his work, et cetera, and I was in the middle of an era where I was just working probably too much, and I go down there and I do the thing, and he's working on my back. And you know how massage therapists find the places that are tight and then they do stuff with them, and that's their job. So I carry a fair amount of my stress on my upper back, and he got his thumb and just below his thumb, that pad on your hand, he got that thing into this part of my back.

(05:36):

And initially it was like, oh, good, you found it. It was hard. And then he started to work it a little bit and I don't like to talk during my massages. And I told him that. So at a certain point it was just a little too much. Thanks. I know you found it. You're doing a great job. And I turned my head to sort of go like, dude, you should back off. And he didn't. And he's working it. And then I lifted my head up in a more explicit fashion. That's enough. Am I paying for this? He says to me, you can leave here with this pain if you want. And he sort of whispers, bends over and whispers, I don't know, gently but fiercely. You know what I'm saying? Gently, but fiercely. John, the guy from the steel mill whispers to me, you can leave here with this pain if you want. If you don't want to leave here with this pain, you have to breathe into it. You have to let me get to it, and you have to let it go. I'll give you about 60 seconds to decide the whole time. His thumb is right in the middle of this place where I'm holding all the stuff about, I can't do this. This is too much. I'm messing this up. What's going to happen? All the stuff, marriage, kids, parenting, finances, the church sexuality. Oh God.

(07:06):

And he tells me, you can leave with all that if you want. If you don't want to leave with that, if you want to release it, you're going to have to breathe into it. Let me get to it and let it go. And then non-verbally, I just turned and said yes, and then I breathed into it, and then he got to me, and then I released. I let it go. I surrendered, whatever. It's mysterious. I didn't leave there with the same pain that I walked in with. If you read the gospels from one perspective, you can mount an argument to suggest that two thirds of the gospels have something to do with healing. I think that's so true, and I'm so grateful for John sort of not disrespectfully, but he moved to New Mexico. I'm like, John, what? We're going to have to do this for each other, aren't we? To find the pain one another and to stay with it and to work it in order to allow for release and liberation and healing. Let's do that.

(08:37):

Stories & Other Things Holy, people, I'll see you at Star of Rock. Let's all go to Star of Rock. Take a great hike. Take a shower under one of those waterfalls. Amen.

Joshua Minden (09:03):

Friends, I'm so thankful that you joined us for this Lenten reflection, the first in a series of six. We look forward to seeing you next week to go even deeper into the themes of healing, renewal, freedom, and transformation. If you're not receiving our weekly email, you're missing out on written reflections and prayer prompts, grace exercises that go along with each episode. Visit our website: StoriesandOtherThingsHoly.com to sign up. I encourage you to take a moment to think about who in your life might also benefit from today's story. Send them a note, a message, or an email, and share today's episode with them. Who knows your invitation might usher new life into theirs. Thank you again, friends! Stories & Other Things Holy.