// Catie Welsh //

I’m sure that most of y’all have heard about the Whole30. It’s a 30 day elimination diet that’s focused on eliminating the most common problematic foods and the junk from your diet with the goal of improving your health and learning more about how the food you eat impacts every area of your life. Whole30 isn’t a diet — it’s about a lifelong health and lifestyle transformation. 

Right after getting married, my husband and I decided to try the Whole30. I was dealing with a lot of chronic health problems (autoimmune disease, thyroid problems, hormonal imbalances, you name it), and he has dealt with gut problems and sleep issues for a while now. We were hoping that this program would help us to reset our bodies and figure out what foods were harming us so that we could find some healing. 

Doing the Whole30 has not been easy. It’s taken planning, consistency, pushing through laziness and frustration, preparation, and perseverance. The night before we started, my husband and I went through our pantry and fridge and packed away everything that wasn’t Whole30 compliant — and honestly, that included quite a bit of junk food (I’m a notorious hoarder of Snickers bars). 

I went into the Whole30 hoping to learn more about healing my body. What I didn’t expect was how much I would learn about how the Lord wants to heal my soul. 

Throughout this process, I’ve realized something huge. I can sit around for the rest of my life begging to be healed, but if I’m not willing to throw out the bad crap and consistently seek the healing, it won’t happen. And even when I do consistently seek that healing, sometimes it takes more time than just 30 days. 

The Whole30 isn’t this magical 30 days that if you do x, y, and z, the healing happens. We’re nearing the end of our 30 days, and while some things have definitely improved, I haven’t gotten all of the healing that I want. The creators of the Whole30 warned that it might take longer for some chronic illnesses that aren’t just chronic fatigue or gluten sensitivity. 

Spiritual healing isn’t this cut and dry program, either. There isn’t a list of things that you can do and then you’ll be healed. It isn’t about a checklist or a perfect program or a single allergy that’s causing all of your problems. Healing takes time. It takes perseverance, a willingness to get back up when you’re knocked down. It takes a kind of grit that means you keep coming back for the healing, over and over again, even when you’re discouraged or frustrated or tired of the process. It takes conviction that it’s worth it. And most of all, it takes trust. Trust in yourself, but more importantly, trust in the One who does the healing. 

It’s easy to get discouraged looking at the big picture when you’re on the journey to healing. Sometimes it’s easy to look at how far you feel from where you want to be and wonder if it’s at all possible. There have been many times during my Whole30 that I’ve just wanted to throw in the towel and dig up that stash of snickers bars I know is in the giant box in my basement. There have been many times on my journey of spiritual healing that I’ve wanted to throw in the towel and turn my back on the Lord. 

But a huge thing that this program has taught me is not to get so focused on the big picture end goal that I lose sight of the little things that are happening every day. Yes, my thyroid hasn’t completely fixed itself. I don’t feel totally healed from my genetic autoimmune disease. But there are a lot of small victories that happen every day — I wake up more well rested, cooking has become more fun, my sink feels clearer, my hair is healthier. 

Similarly, sometimes we can be so focused on the end goal of healing that we miss what the Lord is doing in the every day — the way the Holy Spirit helped us to be more patient in that moment, the word that Jesus speaks to us through Scripture today in our prayer time, the moment of comfort the Father offers us when we’re feeling upset.

This process has taught me so much about how the Father invites me into this journey of healing with Him. It’s not something I’m a passive observer of — instead, I’m an active participant in my journey to healing. And every day that I turn to Him and seek that healing, He responds, sometimes in obvious ways, but more often in a manner that’s so subtle and small that I have to be paying attention to see it. 

If you’re on a journey of seeking healing, I encourage you to pay attention closely. There will be days that you’ll feel discouraged, but I pray that you have the strength to persevere. It takes time and patience. It takes showing up every day, making the decision that healing is more important than the easy route. It takes faith that Jesus is who He says He is. 

And sister, I promise you that He is. He is our Healer, and when we participate with Him in this process of healing, incredible things happen.