Bad Posture

I have horrible posture.  It’s true.  For some reason, I always thought people who stood up straight were subtly trying to tell the world, “I’m better than you.”  I mean, they probably weren’t, but in my head, that’s what I told myself.  So for years, I’ve been a sloucher.  I guess it was just something I never cared about or paid attention to; and consequently, years of slouching have literally curved my spine.

Yesterday, I went to a Chiropractor for the first time.  Beside stating the obvious (that I had horrible posture), he explained why I’ve been having the pain I’ve been having, and what’s going on under the surface that I really had no idea about (some junk about messages from the brain and energy exertion…I don’t know…I was distracted by the interesting playlist of baby-making-music that was playing through the intercom speakers.  It was seriously a hand selection of late 80’s/early 90’s R&B…the stuff they used to play after 10 pm on 99 Jamz when I was a kid.  Yes, that’s Jamz with a “z”).  And as I sat (uncomfortably) in my open-backed gown, waiting for my x-rays, I started thinking about something.

Sin is a lot like bad posture.  At first, you might start slouching because you’re lazy, or it’s comfortable.  In actuality, the chiropractor told me it takes MORE energy to slouch than to stand up straight.  Then over time, what was once an occasional thing becomes permanent.  And with that time, the pain increases.  Until finally, the pain is so unbearable, you go to get help and realize it’s going to take more work and more pain to fix the problem than it would have taken to just stand up straight in the first place.  And that’s pretty much the same course that sin takes.

If I could go back in time and tell young Selbouez that bad posture would cause all this trouble, I may have not listened.  I was a pretty stubborn kid.  I was also way more into cooler things than worrying about my posture.  But if I could make young Selbouez FEEL what 25 year old Selbouez is feeling, it may have been a different story.

Pain sucks.  Don’t wait to feel it.  Trust Someone who already told you it hurts.  And then go get your back realigned.