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Healing

Today marks the one-week anniversary of my trail tumble during which I torn my my shoulder and the peroneal longus tendon/muscle and put me out of commission. Taking away running and swimming is a painful thing, especially when these two things account for the biggest chunk of my time aside from sleeping and working. Other than feeling like a depleted balloon for the next two days after the fall, I wondered if God was trying to get my attention and teach me something. Like a loving parent, sometimes He does withhold something we care deeply for our sake. Maybe I've (once again) put too much emphasis of my life in physical training rather than spiritual?

As I pray for my own healing, I thought about Jesus' miracles in the New Testament. My favorite healing story is found in Luke 5. Jesus was preaching in a fully packed house while a group of friends tried to deliver their paralytic friend to Jesus. "Finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles..." That's probably not something one would do unless s/he is absolutely certain that it is going to work and Jesus really has to power to heal. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you" (Luke 5:19). Sin? Puzzling, right? Jesus unpacked it by explaining so "...you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Luke 5:24). The man rose up immediately, picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.
Whether my mishap is directly related to my personal sins, I think there's always a lesson to be learned since God is sovereign in all things. The time-out I had from not being able to run in the last couple days gave me room to evaluate and re-align my life. Borrowing from Jeremy Lin who quoted from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, what I need to strive for is to "display His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life," and be careful not to replace the Creator with creation (running, swimming, work, or what have you).

Earlier today, I was back at the pool and were able to do some freestyle (though not entirely pain free). It was nice to feel my arm pulling through the water once again and with full appreciation that it is no small miracle.

"Pick up your bed and sin no more."

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