This post is about the ways that God has used my broken arm for good. I've noticed it since day one, but I just haven't made the effort to sit down and write about it.
The first and most obvious thing was that my trip to the hospital set up a conversation with someone from work (the man who took me to the hospital), in which we got talking about Church. He grew up in the Church, and used to go to Church, but ever since coming to Santa Barbara a few years ago, he never really bothered finding a new Church. As far as I can tell, he was basically just waiting for someone to invite him to come to Church again. I hardly even had to invite him, he practically did that himself. It makes me wonder how many other people I'm interacting with daily that just need an invite to become involved in a Church.
Second, it reminded me of my weakness and frailty, and hence my desperate need for Jesus. It also forced me to slow down and listen to God more, something I really need to do more often.
Third, and related to number two, God showed me where I place my self worth. I put a lot of my value in my human abilities to do things. Being brought down to a point where I could hardly do anything on my own was very depressing because I suddenly felt worthless. I couldn't drive, type, cook, floss, type, write... Even the simple things that I could do were usually challenging. Through this God reminded me of my true value. I'm not valuable because I can handle life on my own. No, God loves me because I am His, and that's the truth I need to cling to. I'm not sure when I would have realized the extent to which I was doing this if not for injuring myself.
So in short, God brought someone back into the Church, and drew me closer to Himself. The only price I had to back was a little pain and a lot of inconvenience. Not a bad tradeoff when you think about it. All things are worked for the glory of God. Even my broken arm.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Details
I'm starting to feel better, so I figured I'd give a little more details. My arms still aren't 100%, but I can use both of them to type.
I was biking to work on Wednesday, and was almost there when I fell. I didn't hit anything, nor did anything hit me. I've got about twenty different theories about what caused it, but my best guess is just operator error. All I know is that one moment I was biking and the next I was falling. I hit the ground, slid, and then as quick as I could, pulled myself and my bike off of the road. I laid there in a daze for a bit, trying to get up my strength to get out my cell phone and call someone at work. Before that happened, someone pulled up in a truck and took me and my bike the rest of the way to work. People at work helped clean my wounds, then one guy took me to the hospital. As I was waiting, both of my arms began hurting a lot, and I was afraid that I'd broken both of them. Fortunately the x-rays showed only a single crack in the right arm. My left arm was just severely bruised. They put me in a splint and sent me home. I spent the rest of the day watching DVDs, one of the few things my half of a capable arm was able to do. Seriously, I could hardly do anything that day. It was only with a ton of pain that I could even use the bathroom on my own.
On Thursday morning I saw a specialist who told me I couldn't be put in a cast because the proximity of the break to my elbow meant that scar tissue would lock up the elbow if I didn't keep moving it. At the advice of both the doctor people at work, I took the rest of the week off, returning on Monday.
I've been having to get a lot of help, including people to drive me everywhere, but all in all it hasn't been too bad. I have an appointment to see the specialist again, and I'll see how the healing has been going according to x-rays. Right now I have most of my full range of motion back in each arm, they are just weak, particularly the broken one.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and your help as I'm on the road to healing.
I was biking to work on Wednesday, and was almost there when I fell. I didn't hit anything, nor did anything hit me. I've got about twenty different theories about what caused it, but my best guess is just operator error. All I know is that one moment I was biking and the next I was falling. I hit the ground, slid, and then as quick as I could, pulled myself and my bike off of the road. I laid there in a daze for a bit, trying to get up my strength to get out my cell phone and call someone at work. Before that happened, someone pulled up in a truck and took me and my bike the rest of the way to work. People at work helped clean my wounds, then one guy took me to the hospital. As I was waiting, both of my arms began hurting a lot, and I was afraid that I'd broken both of them. Fortunately the x-rays showed only a single crack in the right arm. My left arm was just severely bruised. They put me in a splint and sent me home. I spent the rest of the day watching DVDs, one of the few things my half of a capable arm was able to do. Seriously, I could hardly do anything that day. It was only with a ton of pain that I could even use the bathroom on my own.
On Thursday morning I saw a specialist who told me I couldn't be put in a cast because the proximity of the break to my elbow meant that scar tissue would lock up the elbow if I didn't keep moving it. At the advice of both the doctor people at work, I took the rest of the week off, returning on Monday.
I've been having to get a lot of help, including people to drive me everywhere, but all in all it hasn't been too bad. I have an appointment to see the specialist again, and I'll see how the healing has been going according to x-rays. Right now I have most of my full range of motion back in each arm, they are just weak, particularly the broken one.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and your help as I'm on the road to healing.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Short Post
I broke my right arm on Wednesday. There's a lot more about it that I'd like to write, but I'm too impatient to type much with one hand.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Commute
Today was the first time I biked to work from my new apartment (Monday and Tuesday I was headed other places in addition to work, so needed my car). It took me about 12 minutes to bike the 2.5 miles - about the same amount of time as it used to take me to drive to work from my previous apartment. That doesn't count the time I spend unlocking and locking my bike, or the time to attach a bag to the back of it. Still, that adds maybe 5 minutes at the most, so I still have a nice short commute, but now I get exercise too.
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