Three years ago, my husband and I rented a condominium located on steep terrain. While he was busy with phone calls, I brought in groceries and suitcases from our car, up and down many stairs.

As I repeatedly went up and down, one knee at first felt uncomfortable, then quickly became very painful. I remembered that the same knee had buckled several years earlier as I was descending the stairs in my residence, causing me to fall. Now I became afraid that this sore knee would hinder our hikes, or worse, that I might fall down the stairs again.

I remembered that all those years ago I had been acutely focused on the pain and had looked for a better way to descend the stairs. You might say that I looked to the pain to direct my way. However, this time I was more alert, meaning that I didn’t try to ignore the pain or willfully push through it, and I didn’t let it lead. Instead, I strove to bear witness to God’s goodness right then and there. I knew God’s goodness to be purely spiritual rather than physical, so I stopped right where I was and closed my eyes as I prayed to acknowledge my spiritual, indestructible nature as a child of God.