Got Fruit ?

I ruptured my Achilles tendon on 2 October 2007, while playing Church League Volleyball, and had surgery yesterday. Yea.. “Ouch” as most have said after asking, “What happened”?

So right now, I’m relegated to crutches and a full cast going from my foot to a few inches below my knee. The surgery went well according to the Orthopedic Surgeon, and, I should get into a walking cast in another week or so barring any setbacks. I’m looking at about six months to recover, with rehab in the mix.This experience has been a revelation for me about being thankful. I remember on the day of the accident, I was walking out of my apartment and thinking to myself; “Man, I hope I don’t blow a knee out while playing volleyball tonight”.The day after surgery, as I was sitting at my desk, I thought back to the previous week and how I was able to walk out of my apartment. I thought of how I could go check my mail without effort or grab a glass of tea from the refrigerator, without having to plan how to get from point A to point B with the glass and crutches in tow.

I found a new respect and admiration that day, for people that are truly handicapped, yet manage to adapt to their situation. Not to be dramatic, but I now get a glimpse of life with some minor physical inconveniences attached. In addition to being thankful for not being severely injured, I take this experience as a wake up call to be more thankful for the little things in life that I took for granted. I was definitely guilty of not really appreciating all of those little things such as living in a relatively safe neighborhood, having shelter and food and obviously having full use of all my limbs and senses.

I’m actually writing this post about 3 weeks after the fact, and something just occurred to me… I was studying a devotional a few days ago from 1Thessalonians 2:18 where Paul was talking about being “hindered” by Satan in his ministry. The basic idea is that Satan knew that Paul had a calling from the Lord to spread the Gospel, and Satan was determined to stop Paul. Satan would create obstacles in Paul’s travels, many times resulting in Paul being arrested, beaten, shipwrecked or otherwise in constant peril. Paul being a very determined man of God, would not however let anything deter him from his calling, he was determined to do the Lord’s will.

In no way am I comparing my situation to Paul, however I think that in an ironic sort of way it’s comical, in that I felt a calling to start this blog a few months ago, but.. (no pun intended) kept dragging my feet. I only got active with creating this blog, once the accident occurred. Now, I don’t believe for a moment that God caused the injury to get me going. Rather He made a way to turn this situation into something good, it was as if the Holy Spirit was saying to me: “OK, Chris, you’re limited in mobility, basically stuck in the apartment, and out of work for a while, what’s your excuse now“? It’s as if I needed to be hindered or slowed down in order to hear and heed the voice of the Holy Spirit.

God works in mysterious ways.

Grace and peace be with you.