Having been born and raised for the first 30 years of my life in Louisiana, I don’t quite understand the ACC hype of the North Carolinians with whom I now make my residence. I remember moving here the year that Dean Smith retired as head coach of the Carolina ‘Heels basketball program. The news was on every radio station, whether country, Christian, or rock, headlining the newspapers, and top story on every local TV station. When I arrived at work that morning, I naively asked, “Who is this Dean Smith everyone is so up in arms about?!” Well, let me say that you would have thought I had just committed the unpardonable sin! “Seriously,” I thought, “is there a fourth person of the Trinity that I am not aware of?”

However, let me hear you say Who Dat? or Geaux Tigers! and I know exactly of that which you speak. That, my friend, would be the New Orleans Saints and LSU Tigers. And while all years have not been as glorious, 2012 is a great year to boast of my roots! The undefeated LSU Tigers play for the National Championship tomorrow night, and the Saints (admittedly my favorite of the two) could well be on their way to the Super Bowl again.

The Saints’ very first Super Bowl victory–actually the very first time they even made it to the championship game since their start in 1967–was on February 7, 2010. The thing that made this victory sweeter than the fact that the fans no longer wore brown paper bags over their heads calling the team the “Ain’ts” was that this team was the epitome of overcoming adversity. Just a few years earlier, the city of New Orleans had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and Drew Brees, the Saints’ quarterback, had been released from his position with the San Diego Chargers after receiving a horrific injury to his shoulder that potentially could have ended his football career. Yet that is not where the story ended.

This real life fairytale of a city that desparately needed something to believe in and a quarterback who desparately needed someone to believe in him is chronicled in Brees’ book Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity, which I highly recommend, whether you enjoy the sport of football or not. It is a story of hope, renewal, and restoration. And believe it or not, this journey of healing is really not that different from the journey of healing that I am so blessed to witness in the lives of the women at Restoration Place. (I bet you were wondering how I was going to tie football into counseling! Well, just keep reading a bit longer…)  

After undergoing major surgery on his shoulder, Brees was told that it would be eight months before he could ever play again and two years before he would feel totally “normal.” The idea of the big picture was more than Drew could imagine. He shares in his book that just getting through each day was “going to require a minor miracle.” And it would not be without excruciating pain. Through his suffering, he learned some very valuable lessons about the healing process. He writes:

“It’s not an overnight proposition–take a pill, do a few exercises, and everything will be fine. Even though I was able to accelerate the process a little by working hard, there was no substitute for time. There are no shortcuts to healing. You can’t rush it.

Whether you’re talking in terms of the physical, the emotional, or the spiritual, healing has its own timetable. When there is tragedy in your life–perhaps a health crisis or the death of a family member or something else that upends your world–there’s a mourning period you have to go through in order to cope with it and come out on the other side healthy and mentally whole. You have to work through the emotions and deal with the fallout. God has designed our bodies and hearts to need rest and recovery when we’ve been wounded, and you can’t rush that. In a way, it’s like the agonizing wait of pregnancy. In order for there to be proper growth for the child inside, you have to give it time. There’s no way around it.

One of the worst things you can do when you’ve been laid low is to try to come back too quickly. You have to see the truth about your situation and accept it in order to heal right and return stronger…”

Everything in me wanted to rush through my rehab…but I’m thankful there were people who knew more than I did about the healing process. They taught me that you have to embrace the pain in order for it to have the desired effect…Pain is a gift I sure didn’t want, but I believe God used it for a purpose in my life.” (Coming Back Stronger, pp.119-120)

Let me just say that if Drew Brees ever tires of throwing a football, he’d make a great counselor! What we tell our clients the first time they ever walk into our office is Drew’s exact message: that the healing process involves their active involvement, commitment, and time. There are no instant, painless, or passive cures. There are no magic pills. Each client is ultimately responsible for the changes that will take place in her life. Sometimes change is easy and swift, but more often than not, it is slow, deliberate, and intentional. And many times, the pain will be significantly worse before it’s better.

Because of the instant gratification mentality that our culture so consistently breeds in the minds and hearts of its inhabitants, this concept of healing taking time is a hard one for most to swallow. But for those who are willing to trust the process–to trust God in the process–they will always come out victoriously.

Just like Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints!

Who dat?!