I’m feeling better after posting that last blog. I think I just needed to get it all off my chest (I must be feeling better if I’m willing to type a whole new blog just pecking around with only my left hand haha). It was beneficial I think, because it forced me to sit down and actually take the time to think about my current predicament of being sick and injured. Thinking (always a dangerous thing to do) also forced me to take a harder look at my so-called “trying times” I am dealing with, and the hardship (and just plain annoyance) I’ve dealt with with my hand, strep, and mono. …and honestly, how really, really, really petty and self-centered and small picture I have been.
Yes, I’m sick. And having strep that wouldn’t go away because of the mono was awful and I hated it. And not having energy because of the mono is a pain in the butt. But really…I mean really…it’s only strep and mono. Not cancer. Not AIDS. Not malaria or yellow fever or typhoid. Heck I haven’t even thrown up. I went to a licensed professional doctor who, thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, gave me some good shots and painkillers and antibiotics. Soon enough (provided I’m not a moron) the mono too will pass.
And yes, I broke my hand and it was bad enough to need surgery and it did hurt like hell. And yes for the moment it is straight-up annoying to do most things in my life with one good hand. But let’s step back a moment. I broke it playing basketball…having fun…in college. Not working in mines or a sweatshop or a thousand other hard-labor death jobs young men all over the world are forced to work at and get injured at. It was a small bone in my hand that will eventually heal. Not some crazy fracture like my femur or spine or something equally terrible. And I had surgery to fix it by a surgeon who specializes in hands, in a top-of-the-line surgical facility. I didn’t just wrap it up in some rag and hope it gets better because medical treatment isnt available or my family couldn’t afford it.
And yet here I sit, supposedly “preparing” myself to travel to some of the poorest areas in our world for the next year. Pretty sure I’ll see worse things than a busted (and soon-to-be healed) hand and strep and mono. I am supposed to provide an avenue to usher in the light, life, joy, and hope of the resurrected King of the Universe and Savior of creation, yet I was too wrapped up in myself and my current condition to think about that. I put God on the backburner.
Looks like this boy has some growin’ to do!
