Pinched Nerve

I had a shooting pain down my arm. I tried a lot of things. I bought an elastic band that was supposed to make it feel better. I used analgesic. My wife would massage my hand, forearm, and elbow, where the pain was the strongest. I tried sleeping differently so I would no longer sleep on it, thinking that might be what it was.

After months with no relief, I went to the doctor. He did an X-ray of my back and neck. I said, “Doc, that’s not the problem. I’ve never had back problems. The pain is here, on my arm.”

But he told me I had a herniated disk in my back, and the bones were pinching a nerve that sent pain signals down my arm. He sent me to physical therapy.

So I went to a physical therapist, and in a few months of her working on my back—teaching me special exercises and stretches, but never doing anything with my arm, where the pain was—all the pain went away and I was back to normal.

The problem was never in my arm. It was between two vertebrae in my back where a nerve was pinched, sending pain signals to a place that was perfectly fine.

You might be reading this with a pinched nerve. You think your pain is in your marriage, your finances, your physical health, your loneliness, or your addiction. And if you keep treating your marriage, finances, physical health, loneliness, or addiction, you’ll end up with the same discouraging results. Maybe temporary relief…but it just keeps coming back.

Because in reality, your problem is not where you are feeling the pain. Until you learn the source, the symptoms will just keep reappearing—maybe in different ways and in different places—but the real issue causing the pain has to be dealt with in order for the pain to go away.

What nerve is being pinched?

I’ve learned that, in most instances, it’s spiritual—and has something to do with holding back on fully surrendering to God.

You were created for life with God at the center. When that is not the case, so many other areas of life suffer. Relationships, finances, habitually destructive behavior, emotional stability—they all suffer when God is not on the throne of your heart. When He is not your first and most important desire, trying to fill other desires sends pain to multiple parts of your life, leading to discouragement and eventual despair.

You might be suffering not because of where it hurts, but because your very purpose has been thwarted.

Reconnect with God on His terms—unconditional surrender—and you’ll be amazed at the way all other problems fade away in the magnificence of His presence.