Tip of My Iceberg

I never text while I’m driving. I’ve been behind too many who I know are doing that because they’re weaving all over the road.

I never text or look at my phone while I’m in conversations with people, face-to-face. I see it as respectful to have eye contact.

But I do walk around my home and text, which was my undoing. While responding to someone who wanted to meet with me, I was focused on typing on my phone and not paying attention to where I was walking.

I tripped, fell, and knew immediately something was wrong because it hurt badly and immediately. Plus, it began to swell.

I’m a great one for denial, so, besides being ticked off about my lack of observation, I stared at my ankle and thought, “Not too bad.” We’d planned on going to a soccer game that evening, and there was no way I was going to let this stop me from attending.

My husband is dear, but he insisted we go to a local emergency room instead, insisting I needed X-rays. I was rather uncooperative.

We went.

After being seen, they were pretty sure I didn’t fracture my ankle. They saw some chips on the X-rays–bone, not chocolate–but they didn’t know if they were from this fall or were the result of a previous injury. Which I’ve not had.

I was given a boot, some papers explaining how I should elevate and ice my ankle, and told to connect with an orthopedic doctor to be seen in a week.

I did the elevating and icing. I neglected to immediately call another doctor, so it will be another week before I can clarify what’s going on with my ankle.

Going into work is embarrassing. Explaining that my injury was simply being unobservant felt like foolishness. So I’ve worked at ignoring the inconvenience and pain; I’ve had six kids, so my pain tolerance is high.

None of that is making this go away.

This has been a genuine reminder of my own frailty. Being human has the accompanying burden of being broken because of our own bad choices. Beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

When God made humans, He gave us free will to choose to obey Him or not. Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God; He spoke to them and walked with them in a loving relationship. But when tempted by the serpent with the possibility of being like God, the desire for knowing what God knows was overwhelming, so they disobeyed Him. A choice that broke their fellowship with the One who loved them.

The consequences were costly. They were removed from paradise, and life became much harder. All because people in general want what they want when they want it. Paul talks about it in the New Testament:

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. This is the condition of the world; we will have problems. We are not sufficient to care for all our problems. We can deny them, minimize them, or pretend they’ve never existed.

Our brokenness doesn’t go away.

Jesus, however, has forgiven all of our messiness and chooses to love us. No matter how stubborn we are. If we know Him personally.

I can ignore my ankle and pretend it will be fine, but the problem isn’t going away unless I deal with it. I need a doctor to help me deal with what I don’t understand. To help me heal.

We all need the Great Physician to help us heal.

Will you let Him?