Injuries…

Another rewrite..More added/changed thoughts..

One Sunday afternoon, a few years ago, on exactly January 13th I was pumped because I was about to play the coolest game ever with some of the coolest guys ever. A game called Berzerker. It's a combination between football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. Awesome! Right!? YA! It was the first play of the game, I got the ball, took one step, and POP!! I was down. I tore a calf muscle and the next 2 weeks of life were the most agonizingly dreadful, exhausting experience ever...crutches. Now some of you may think, "oh, crutches, those look easy." or "I've been on crutches before and they weren't that bad" well I hated them! But of course, I learned something as we all should from each experience. Crutches really made it difficult to get around, especially since I had to get around UAB. For the most part, I just tried as much as I could to suck it up and be tough about traveling multiple blocks. I think what helped out a lot was the fact that people were very thoughtful. They held open doors and were always offering to help carry things for me; however, I nicely rejected the help. I’m not sure why, I just wanted to do everything for myself, even something as simple as carry something up stairs. So I did. I never fell down the stairs or was unable to perform my day to day tasks. I made it! While I crutched from place to place I did have a lot of time to just think. I thought mostly about how tired and sore I was, and I often asked myself what the root of my hard headedness was in not accepting help. But mostly I thought of how all of us want to do everything ourselves when it comes to Christianity. Let’s take a poll (raise your hand if this applies, I will too)....How many of you want to do everything you can each day to ensure a spot in Heaven? How many of you spend time each day reading the Bible and praying because you want to be saved? How many of you think that you will be saved because of your deeds, faith, or because you have committed less sin then someone else? I’m pretty sure we all know that we can’t earn our way to heaven, but don’t we usually revert back to that kind of lifestyle? Things begin to get a little rocky and all the sudden we are at church 24/7, we are constantly praying, looking up scriptures, and trying our hardest to walk the straight and narrow as if our works and efforts are going to save us, or bring us back to a comfortable place. These are things we should be striving to do always, not to earn a spot in heaven, but because we already have obtained that spot and are beginning the heavenly lifestyle here on earth. Jesus prayed “Your will be done, on EARTH as it IS IN HEAVEN.” For the duration of my injury, I had a very hard time moving around. Without my crutches, I would have never been able to move. I couldn’t do it by myself. We can’t do it by ourselves. We need the aid of Jesus and his blood, we need the grace of God, and we need to give up and surrender to Him. Sometimes we need that “injury” to bring us down before God so that we can view Him in the right perspective and see that there’s nothing we can possibly do to get where He sits. All we can do is accept His invitation. It took months to recover from that injury, and I still have a deformation in that muscle. But I’m physically back to full speed thanks to the doctors and therapists. Most of all thanks be to God. I’m imperfect, unworthy, and injured, but His gift of grace allows me to run full speed after Him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” Ephesians 2:8-9.