Able to wake up early and do some reading since breakfast is at 8:30. With getting ready to travel, traveling, and settling in, I haven’t been doing much study. It gets too easy to focus on ministry before focusing on God.
This morning was a fun one. Jonny and I were digging out the fire pit to make it larger. When it was done, and David hadn’t come back with supplies for our project to make a bunk bed, I decided to split some wood. Everything was going well until I tried to pull apart a piece that was mostly split and I threw out my left arm. Made it to a nearby clinic (thank you Abby H for being an awesome arm rest) where the doctor eventually got my arm back in place. The process of getting my arm relocated is a story to tell in person.
After my medical emergency episode, I came back to help supervise the bunk bed building. Realizing my uselessness in the situation, I just hung out for a bit and let the meds wear off. Already impatiently waiting for my arm to get out of this sling.
During the bonfire, David shared some good stories and insight that I would expect from an old man. He fits the role of an old man well with his tobacco pipe and extreme air of respect while still holding on to 27 with his crocs and let’s do motivation. I asked him if I could steal one of his stories to post, and here is what he had to share:
There was a kid who was born with only his right arm. He didn’t think he could do much, but his mom had hope for him and signed him up for martial arts. When he showed up to class, his teacher told him that he was going to go into a competition in three months, but if he wanted to win, he had to do everything he was taught exactly as he was told. Over the three months, the teacher taught the kid only one move, and for hours a day he would practice only this one move. When the kid would ask why he was only learning this one move, the teacher would ignore his question or tell him he will find out eventually because all he needed to focus on is continually practicing this one move. Time for the tournament came, and even though the kid was skeptical, he stepped up in the ring. His first opponent seemed like he had even less practice and beating him seemed like it could have happened without knowing his one move. Yet round after round in this big tournament, the kid used his one move and continually was beating his opponents. As he went further and further into the bracket, the crowd and himself were becoming more and more bewildered about how he was winning with this one move, having only his right arm, and somehow beating those who have had years of experience and were so much older and stronger. He made it all the way to the finals, and even against a long time reigning champion in the last round, he won by using just his one move. After receiving his trophy cup, he ran over to his teacher and asked how he possibly could have won the tournament with his disability, strength, and lack of experience. His teacher explained that he only taught the kid that one move because the only way it was defendable was by grabbing the left arm.
While David may have been poking at me about dislocating my arm with the story, he also brought an awesome message with it. Too often we look at flaws and forget that we are always going to be imperfect. We sometimes think we need to be better to make a difference when what we need is to do what we are asked of by God even if it doesn’t always make sense. Afterall, where we are weak, He is strong, right?
