Divine Surgery Series: When God Removes What You Won’t

Week 2: The Recovery Room – Learning To Rest Between Seasons

After every surgery, there’s a room where movement halts, and healing begins. It’s quiet. Controlled. Sacred.

It’s called the recovery room.

And in leadership — in life — there are sacred seasons when God places us in that same space.

Following my emergency appendectomy, I had no choice but to slow down. My body demanded stillness. Spiritually, something deeper was happening. God wasn’t just healing me physically — He was preparing me for a new flow of clarity, identity, and purpose.

It was in that room that I learned a truth most leaders avoid:

The hardest part of healing is not the incision — it’s the stillness afterward.

Because stillness exposes what motion hides.

🌿 The Culture of Constant Movement

Leaders are conditioned to keep going:

Produce.
Perform.
Prove.
Push.
Press through.

We’re praised for endurance and rewarded for overextension.

And many of us silently believe:

• “Rest is laziness.”
• “If I slow down, I’ll fall behind.”
• “If I pause, I’ll lose momentum.”
• “My value is tied to what I produce.”

But in the recovery room, none of that matters.

You cannot hustle your way through healing.

And when you try, you end up treating exhaustion like excellence.

One morning during recovery, God whispered something that realigned me completely:

“Rest is not the interruption of your purpose; it is the infrastructure of your purpose.”

That single truth dismantled years of internalized pressure.

Because in Scripture and in life, God moves powerfully in rest:

• Elijah heard God in the stillness
• David was strengthened in solitude
• Jesus withdrew often to be restored

God does not compete with our busyness.
He speaks in the spaces we slow down enough to hear Him.

🌿 Healing + Rest: Sacred Partners

Healing is not a solo act.
Healing has a companion — rest.

And rest is not passive.
Rest is participation.
Rest is agreement.
Rest is surrender.

Healing is the work God does within me.
Rest is the posture that allows Him to do it.

Once I understood this, the recovery room became less of a disruption and more of a divine invitation.

The recovery room is where:

✨ Vision becomes clear

✨ Peace becomes possible
✨ Identity becomes anchored
✨ Strength returns

✨ Purpose becomes purified

It’s the space between what was removed and what’s next.

It’s where God stabilizes you before He elevates you.

🌿 Why Leaders Misread Recovery

During my recovery, I realized how often leaders mislabel rest.

We call it:

• delay
• stagnation
• being behind
• losing momentum

But heaven calls it:

Rest. Reset. Realignment. Restoration. Rebuilding

Stillness is not punishment — it’s preparation.

Your pause is not a problem.
Your slowdown is not a setback.

Often, it’s God saying:
“Let Me strengthen you before you step into what’s next.”

🌿 You Cannot Step Into Your Next Season Carrying the Exhaustion of the Last One

Exhaustion is not a badge — it is a warning signal.

You cannot build a new vision with depleted strength.
You cannot pour from a fractured identity.
You cannot discern clearly through the fog of burnout.

One of the deepest truths I learned in that recovery room was this:

Rest is not the absence of productivity — rest is the restoration of capacity.

🌿 A Fast in the Middle of Recovery

Three days after surgery, I began a 21-day Daniel Fast.

Not because I was trying to be strong, but because I was surrendering.
Not because I felt powerful, but because I felt pulled.

My body was healing.
My mind was quieting.
My spirit was awakening.
My identity was realigning.

And God whispered:

“Don’t rush this room. I’m doing deep work underneath what you can see.”

Some of the greatest spiritual clarity of my life arrived in a season that forced me to be still.

🌿 The Leadership Lesson: Recovery Is Strategy

No impactful leader sustains influence without honoring their recovery seasons.

Recovery is where:

✔ Emotional residue drains
✔ Mental clarity returns
✔ Discernment sharpens
✔ Wisdom deepens
✔ Confidence rebuilds
✔ Vision refines
✔ The soul resets

Leaders who resist recovery burn out.
Leaders who honor recovery rise up.

🌿 Your Recovery Room Might Not Look Like Mine

Your recovery room might be:

• A transition after leaving a job
• A pause after burnout
• A quiet season after relational loss
• A moment when God forces you to stop
• A sabbatical you didn’t want but needed
• A waiting season between assignments

But no matter its form, healing is happening beneath the surface.

God is aligning what movement would have blurred.

✨ Reflection for This Week

Where is God inviting you into rest so He can restore your clarity, your identity, and your strength?

What rhythms are you being asked to release?
What pace is God recalibrating within you?

If you’re entering a quiet season, don’t despise it. The recovery room is where God prepares you to walk fully in who you’re becoming.

Recovery isn’t always gentle. Next week, we’ll explore why healing sometimes hurts.

 

If this article resonated with you and you’re sensing a recalibration in your leadership journey,

I’m launching a beta cohort in January using The Scarlet Thread Framework™ to guide women from shame to sanctuary.
DM me “INTERESTED” for early details.

Anchor Scripture

“He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength…”— Psalm 23:2–3 (NLT)