My Motorcycle Injuries

I've told the story before on this blog, but my motorcycle accident occurred, in part, because my car was not running well and I chose to take my bike to get a haircut. A few days before the accident I had gone to a mechanic to have some work done on my car. On that day I took a backpack full of books in order to work on a sermon while waiting for the repair. A short time after getting settled I was told that the repair couldn't be finished until the following day, so I shoved everything into the backpack and trekked my way back home on foot. It involved several miles of walking, but no biggie.  A few months after the accident I started to think about that little journey that I had taken just a few days before the accident and I sadly thought to myself that I would never be able to do something like that again. I was pretty much convinced that my body was so heavily damaged that I was finished with any kind of walking that involved longer distances. Well...I have for years now ...

There was a period of time after the accident when I felt the need to prove things to the world around me. I sought to establish my victory over all of the adversity and physical setbacks that I was facing. I worked hard to conquer the injuries from my motorcycle accident and always measured each day according to my progress. Unfortunately, I thought that I had to prove to the people around me that I was someone who had overcome the beating that I took with the accident, so I would talk to them about how well I was doing and how fit I had become. Over time, I learned something. What I learned was that I didn't need to prove anything. Not to anyone, and not to myself. I know who I am, what I'm capable of doing, and what it takes to find a sense of satisfaction within my own heart. I once felt that I needed to prove something, but I was wrong. The only thing that I need to prove involves the ability to live life with or without physical progress. I have moved forward with my life...

I gave a member of our church some advice a while ago. He's several years older than me and he's had some issues with his health over the past couple of years. We were talking about exercising and he mentioned that he was trying to do some push ups but he could barely do one. I gave him a suggestion involving a technique that I learned in physical therapy eleven years ago. One of my therapists taught me to do push ups on a kitchen counter. She taught me to lean on the counter at an angle with my arms stretched out and to push up and down away from the counter. My arm and leg were not healed enough or fit enough to do real push ups on the floor at that time, and the counter method helped me greatly as I sought to strengthen my upper body. This friend of mine at church was really happy to hear my advice and determined to give it a try. This past Sunday he told me that the counter method helped him greatly and that he had now moved up to doing regular push ups on the floor. I thin...

I fell a couple of weeks ago. I was unloading some things into the garage from the trunk of my car, but it had been raining and I slipped on the garage floor. My one leg is neither strong nor stable enough to hold me up when something like this happens and I went down like a broken elevator. I could have landed in several different ways, but me and fate decided to land on my bad knee while attempting to break the fall by also landing on my bad hand. Yes, life is a cornucopia of exciting and wonderful events. I just noticed this morning that the pains associated with this little tidbit of fun have finally gone away. There's still pain at each location, but only the regular stuff. The potential to fall has always been one of my greater concerns since the motorcycle accident occurred years ago. It has happened to me a few times over the years, but the thing is that I'm learning to fear it less as time marches on. I know that a fall can lead to some serious damage, but it's jus...

I'm leaving on a trip this coming Saturday morning. It involves a long journey as I travel from the home base airport to Atlanta, then to DC, then to Istanbul, and finally to Amman. I'll be spending a few days in Jordan and the better part of two weeks in Israel. Yeah, I know it's dangerous these days but hey, think of the SkyMiles I'll earn if I live! I've had to shuffle a lot of things in my life to make this trip a reality, but tomorrow I'll finish packing and Saturday at 4 in the morning I'll leave for the airport. It's a good thing that I don't ordinarily sleep much, right?  This trip involves touring with a missionary and helping with a few things from day to day. I know that God's hand is in it, so off I go. (Well, off we go because my lovely wife will be joining me). My body is as ready as it will be, and I must admit that I really don't fear any trouble with my knee, leg, or hip. I'll probably need to walk about seven miles a da...

  Time is a weird thing. It defines our lives in so many ways, yet it can only carry as much significance as we allow within our hearts and minds.  The past several weeks have been both demanding and fleeting. I've been really busy both professionally and personally, and at times it seems as though each day is a dream that passes as quickly as it occurs. I've always seen July 4th as a point in the year that ends a host of holidays and events, while also being a point on the calendar that ushers in everything that leads to the "holiday season" and the culmination of a year's events. It's sort of a beginning of the end within each year for me. I know, I'm freakishly exhibiting a weird philosophical vibe here. The thing is that time is moving quickly and it continues to leave the past even further back. This accident of mine continues to effect my body in everchanging negative ways as life progresses, but time also continues to move me further away from a lot...

I haven’t written anything here over the past few weeks, and I’m typing now to simply say that I don’t really have a lot to say at this time. I think that there are points in life where you deal with the things at hand while facing each day with a sense of duty and/or determination. Things hurt, things don’t always work right, you feel your body fighting against your efforts to function normally, and you just have to move forward anyway. This accident has changed a lot of things for me, but it hasn’t changed me. Life is for living, and that’s what I’ve been doing over the past several weeks. Busy, distracted, and balancing every concern with every assurance. There are things that are far more important than my body, and I’m a little intrigued these days by the way in which life just goes on. In the end it’s all about living.