Keith Battle - Verified - Part 1

For the next four weeks, all of my attention is going to be on single people, and here’s what we’re calling it: Verified. This series is called Verified, and the concept comes from the Instagram blue check you receive once you’ve reached a certain level of status, brand awareness, or personal acclaim and fame in life. I don’t know who determines who gets verified on Instagram, but I do know this: it is God Himself who verifies every human being. It is God who says you are standard; God says you are enough; God says you are qualified; God says you are sufficient—without a man, without a woman, without a boo, without a boyfriend/girlfriend, significant other, without a husband, without a wife, and without a ring. You alone are enough. The goal of this series is not only to affirm that; it is also to give you the tools and resources you need to be successful at whatever stage you’re in life as a single person. We are going to talk about all kinds of topics to help empower you as a single. Now, we are going to start off today with something that a lot of single people struggle with, and it’s what I call singlehood fatigue. Singlehood fatigue is when you’re just tired of being single. Here is something I discovered over ten years ago: I found that there is a connection between a sore foot and a desperation to get married. I really did! Check this out: a few months ago, I started having this pain in my heel, and after coping with that pain for several weeks, I went to my primary care physician. He diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis in my foot. I’ve shared this with you all before, and along with the diagnosis, the doctor provided some things that I needed to do to get better, including stretching the Achilles, stretching the calf, icing it, and following through with different treatments that I needed to do. He said that after three to six weeks of doing those things, if it didn’t get better, I would need to have a cortisone shot. When I shared that publicly at this church, I had people coming up to me and sharing all this advice. Some people were like, «Man, you just need to get that shot. This is just gonna be it; you know, feel better until you get the shot. Just go get the shot.» Other people said, «No, don’t get the shot! Just stretch it, ice it, get off of it, rest, and make sure you take some ibuprofen.» One person even suggested that I roll my foot on a frozen water bottle, and another suggested that I wrap my foot in a fresh collard green. So I received a lot of advice, and I did some of it, but I didn’t do everything consistently. That was the main issue; I didn’t do anything consistently, and my foot is still hurting. About two weeks ago, I got fed up; I was just done with it. I had had enough. So, I called a podiatrist specialist and got an appointment with their clinic. I remember on my way to the doctor’s office, as well as when I went in, I had one thing in mind: a cortisone shot. I wanted some quick relief from this annoying pain. I was tired of my foot hurting; I was tired of waking up limping in the morning; I was tired of limping getting out of the car; I was tired of limping out of the barber chair at the barbershop. I was just tired of my foot hurting, and I was sick of it. I was tired of doing the stretching, tired of icing it, and tired of sleeping with this apparatus on my foot to keep it upright at night, even though I hadn’t done any of that consistently. I was tired of all of it—I just wanted my foot to stop hurting. So when I got in there and talked to the doctor, I explained, «Look, this is what’s going on, this is what I’ve been going through, and this is what I want. I want that shot!» His response was, «Mr. Battle, I could give you the shot, but here’s what you need to know. These are the things you need to understand first.» Before he gave me those four things, he said, «You have to understand, Mr. Battle, that you have acute inflammation in your heel.» He started pressing on that area of my foot, and when he did, he said, «This inflammation in your heel is being caused by the plantar fascia in your foot being very, very tight.» He explained that although there’s nothing wrong with a cortisone shot, I needed to know and apply this first before I receive it: «First of all, it is important to understand that it’s not a 100% guarantee for improvement if I give you the cortisone shot. In fact, 20% of the people who receive the cortisone shot experience no improvement; additionally, some of those people experience negative results from the cortisone shot, and it is a painful shot.» He continued, «Secondly, you need to understand that even if the cortisone shot takes away the pain, it will not fix the underlying causes of the pain. The cortisone shot will not stretch out your plantar fascia.»