Thursday was an official milestone in my recovery from surgery - at two weeks I had to move from the basic physio excercsies to the more advanced ones, specifically those that will allow me to regain full extension of my right arm. This is essential before I can start radiotherapy - it has to be said the radiotherapist fell about laughing when she asked me to show her how far I could raise my arm on Wednesday.

For the wall climbing excercise, I mark with a pencil how far I can reach the first time I do the exercise each morning - after a few reps and as the day goes on I can reach further but I have chosen to use my first attempt as the benchmark. In four days I have improved by around 7cm (or nearly 3 inches in real money). Today's improvement over yesterday was the smallest being 'only' about 1cm but still an improvement.

All of this got me thinking about the expectations that we in churches put on people to develop their 'spiritual muscles' whether they are new to faith or have sustained some kind of injury to their faith. Just as I am not going to regain full use of my arm for several weeks - if indeed ever - so it takes time to build up, or re-build spirtual strength.

Sometimes people new to faith go at it like the proverbial bull at a gate - only to burn out or get injured in the process. Sometimes people's life experiences or, sadly, church experiences leave them with aching or gaping wounds and it takes a very long time and a lot of hard work to recover. I find myself wondering if sometimes we get too impatient, with ourselves or with others, either wanting to run before we can walk or feeling that 'surely by now you should be over it' whatever 'it' was.

Every church has its share of wounded people - those who have sustained injuries to their faith and who may never be able to regain the 'strength' or 'flexibility' they once had. All too often they have to move churches to find acceptance as they now are.

My right arm still has a long way to go to reach the extension I can achieve with my left arm, and I will always have to be extra careful with it to avoid possible delayed complications, but little by little, cm by cm, it will get there.

As yet I haven't had a day when it goes 'backwards' but I know that's possible too - and a possibility we need to allow for among those, oursleves included, who are trying to develop or redevelop healthy spiritual lives.