Skating Through Life Epilogue

Anyone who knows me probably knows by now that I fell at the skating rink and ended up sporting an arm sling. That's right, I published a post on learning to skate the morning of the 19th and took a pretty good tumble that same evening. After spending Thursday night and most of the day Friday unable to fully extend or bend my left arm, grasp anything with my left hand, or otherwise use my left arm in routine ways (hmmmm...maybe I should have this checked out?) I finally relented and went to the doctor after work on Friday. As it turned out, I broke my elbow...a little. Basically, a bone in my forearm bumped into a bone in my elbow and chipped a piece off (it is somewhat disconcerting to know there is a piece of bone floating around inside me, but several of my nurse friends have assured me that it's okay). Apparently, the treatment for this type of injury is pretty simple. They gave me something to reduce the swelling and some very nice pain medication and put my arm in a sling. The doctor said it would take about four weeks to heal, but I could try taking the sling off after about a week. During that time, it was really amazing to see how inter-dependent our body parts are. I learned I had taken my left elbow for granted all these years and was especially surprised to discover that even tasks that didn't rely on my elbow directly could affect it indirectly (my "discovery" of these things was usually marked with an "owwww!").

I picked this week's featured gift Friday morning. After a week of flipping my head upside down to fix my hair and employing a variety of creative techniques to get dressed, I was positively giddy when I was able to lift my bent arm over my head and bend my arm behind my back. Our human bodies are imperfect and vulnerable, but our Creator has designed them with a vast capacity for healing. I am very thankful that mine is healing well and quickly.

p.s. I have to admit I was a bit sheepish about discussing the source of my injury at first. In addition to the blog post, I had shared the story with several people at work that morning, and there was a part of me that was afraid my setback could be seen as evidence I shouldn't have been skating in the first place. There was a nasty voice in my head that suggested God hadn't been calling me out of my comfort zone at all, or worse…He had called me out just to set me up for a literal fall. But in my heart, I knew that voice was wrong. A Father that loves me enough to redeem me for His own is not a Father that sets His children up to fail for the sake of failure. In His love He does allow them to experience pain, difficulty, trouble, and failure, but all within His perfect plan. If God is loving and sovereign--and I believe He is--my broken elbow was ordained by Him for a specific purpose. My challenge was to discern what I was to take away from the experience. In the process, I've discovered a few more "gifts" I need to share with you this week.

Though I fell hard enough to break a bone, I got back up and immediately continued skating. There was only enough time to go around once more, and I was determined I would not end the night with a fall. Afterwards, I even ran out on the rink in my socks to join a handful of middle school girls in "The Cupid Shuffle." I don't say this to boast. I'm stunned. A year ago, my reaction to the fall would have been anger, maybe tears, and a vow to never, ever, EVER go skating again. The fact that I didn't respond that way is proof of God at work in me. Cool.

The fear of injury fits right in with my fear of failure and lack of control. Getting injured is basically failure that hurts. Though God allowed this injury, He limited it to something relatively minor, and now that I've experienced "failure that hurts," I'm not so afraid of it anymore.

I've also learned that while it's important to exercise reasonable caution, the possibility of failure is not sufficient grounds to shy away from new experiences. For years, I've boasted of never breaking bone, but my clean injury record could be largely attributed to the fact that I rarely did anything. What a waste. This past week, several kids at the school where I work asked me how I hurt my arm, and I kind of liked being able to reply, "I was roller skating."