Let’s start with the most important thing on my mind: me.
I know it sounds egocentric so let’s get to the whole truth, starting with some history.
Waaaaay back in middle school I was playing soccer with some friends at school and made a swipe at the ball. A bad swipe. I twisted my right knee pretty badly, but never went to the doctor for it because it ended up healing on its own…mostly.
Every once in awhile if I did the same stomp/twist motion it would come back and be sore for a few days but I was always afraid that by the time I got to the doctor and he said, “where does it hurt?” the pain would subside and I would be speechless. Instead, I accepted my occasional limp and life went on.
The next year I REALLY wrecked my left knee and had surgery…that took a long time to fully heal and my activities were impaired for awhile.
In college I took up running and weight lifting, but soon encountered strange injuries in my lower joints: hips, knees, and ankles. Most interestingly, my old soccer injury on the right leg came back with a vengeance and even took me out of a race after months of training. I visited the podiatrist, who prescribed insoles and particular adjustments to my running shoes to counter my pronation. I went to the chiropractor who discovered that my left leg was 1/8 inch shorter than my right. This threw off the alignment in my hips and likely caused all of the pains when doing prolonged running. He gave me a heel lift and that seemed to help. I tried to do biking, but neither of my knees liked long rides. I took up swimming, but after graduation I no longer had access to a pool. The only activities that caused no pain were walking and roller blading. It seemed I would never run over 3 miles again…
Then I went to church with my friend and the pastor talked about healing from God. I’ve certainly heard of this before, and read about it for myself in the Bible, but something he said changed my perspective of prayer and my view of God’s power. The congregation sang some songs but I could only sit in my chair and cry out to God. He told me to ask Him for healing, to rely on Him as the sole provider. My friend prayed with me and I felt the presence of God. It’s a very weird feeling, but distinctive.
The only thing left to do was wait and see what would happen. Prayers are always answered in only three ways: yes, no, and wait.
So I tried running. No problems.
I went hiking. No problems.
To this day, I’ve never had a problem with my right knee.
Within the last year, however, a new problem arose: my left hip. You remember the leg that’s shorter than the other? Yes, alignment issues arose because I had stopped wearing my heel insert from the chiropractor. It was so hard to wear because I slip my shoes off and on so much in Japan and wear so many different shoes during the day. One day on a long run, my hip started hurting so I walked home (an hour). The next day I could barely walk, let alone get down the stairs.
It slowly got better and I went running again. Bad choice. This time it took longer before I was walking normally again, so waited a whole month before going out on another run. I didn’t last a half mile before pain shot out from my hip and I shamefully walked back to my house. I haven’t been able to run since last July. I took up swimming again to stay fit, and only made it up Mt. Fuji because I was loaded with ibuprofen. Yes, even hiking was now compromised because of this injury.
In all of this, I never forgot that God had healed my knees a few years ago. Could He heal my hip, too? More importantly, would He heal me again? Well, I had no doubt in His power, but I wasn’t ready for the answer to my prayer. I refused God to ask for healing, afraid the answer would be “no.” The last thing I wanted was to be bitter and angry at God for not allowing me the pleasure of good health, so I avoided asking the question. If I don’t ask, I can’t be refused. So I just limped on, hoping that the problem would go away or something like that…but it didn’t. In fact, it got much worse.
I tried using my heel insert again but it backfired, producing a limp that was present even while walking. It was continuously sore, even while lying in bed. Through all of this I was reading about Job, reading about Paul, and reading King David’s cries to God. My heart finally came to a place where I could joyfully rest in my eternal salvation in Christ; I didn’t care about hearing “no” or if my body was broken the rest of my life. I care, but not in a resentful way. Making the conscious decision to rejoice in Christ no matter my circumstance, I was ready to ask God to heal me. A friend in Japan had previously offered to pray with me (which I declined) so I sought her out. We met in my room and prayed simply to God. Suddenly I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Again, very distinctive and unlike any other feeling. You couldn’t recreate it on your own. The weirdest thing happened; as we prayed for healing, I felt my femur growing. I thought it was my imagination. I didn’t expect that at all, just figured if God was going to do something He would just “make it go away” or something magical like that.
After our prayer my friend said, “I felt the presence of God here; it felt like ~.” It was the exact same thing I had felt. She asked if I felt any different and I was like, “well, I guess we’ll see in the morning.”
That night, everything BUT my hip hurt. My lower back, my knees, my legs all felt like they were adjusting around in there. In the morning I walked down the stairs. I stretched out. I jogged down the path. I hiked up and down a short steep trail. I’m pretty confident that God healed my hip, and that He did it by growing my leg to the appropriate length. I have a long trip ahead of me, traveling with heavy luggage and hiking around New Zealand. I guess time will tell for sure, short of a doctor’s visit and x-ray. However, none of these things will ever be needed to reinforce my confidence that God’s presence was there, that He answers prayers, and that nothing in this world holds significance compared to His majesty. Only He is worthy of our attention and devotion.
I know it sounds egocentric so let’s get to the whole truth, starting with some history.
Waaaaay back in middle school I was playing soccer with some friends at school and made a swipe at the ball. A bad swipe. I twisted my right knee pretty badly, but never went to the doctor for it because it ended up healing on its own…mostly.
Every once in awhile if I did the same stomp/twist motion it would come back and be sore for a few days but I was always afraid that by the time I got to the doctor and he said, “where does it hurt?” the pain would subside and I would be speechless. Instead, I accepted my occasional limp and life went on.
The next year I REALLY wrecked my left knee and had surgery…that took a long time to fully heal and my activities were impaired for awhile.
In college I took up running and weight lifting, but soon encountered strange injuries in my lower joints: hips, knees, and ankles. Most interestingly, my old soccer injury on the right leg came back with a vengeance and even took me out of a race after months of training. I visited the podiatrist, who prescribed insoles and particular adjustments to my running shoes to counter my pronation. I went to the chiropractor who discovered that my left leg was 1/8 inch shorter than my right. This threw off the alignment in my hips and likely caused all of the pains when doing prolonged running. He gave me a heel lift and that seemed to help. I tried to do biking, but neither of my knees liked long rides. I took up swimming, but after graduation I no longer had access to a pool. The only activities that caused no pain were walking and roller blading. It seemed I would never run over 3 miles again…
Then I went to church with my friend and the pastor talked about healing from God. I’ve certainly heard of this before, and read about it for myself in the Bible, but something he said changed my perspective of prayer and my view of God’s power. The congregation sang some songs but I could only sit in my chair and cry out to God. He told me to ask Him for healing, to rely on Him as the sole provider. My friend prayed with me and I felt the presence of God. It’s a very weird feeling, but distinctive.
The only thing left to do was wait and see what would happen. Prayers are always answered in only three ways: yes, no, and wait.
So I tried running. No problems.
I went hiking. No problems.
To this day, I’ve never had a problem with my right knee.
Within the last year, however, a new problem arose: my left hip. You remember the leg that’s shorter than the other? Yes, alignment issues arose because I had stopped wearing my heel insert from the chiropractor. It was so hard to wear because I slip my shoes off and on so much in Japan and wear so many different shoes during the day. One day on a long run, my hip started hurting so I walked home (an hour). The next day I could barely walk, let alone get down the stairs.
It slowly got better and I went running again. Bad choice. This time it took longer before I was walking normally again, so waited a whole month before going out on another run. I didn’t last a half mile before pain shot out from my hip and I shamefully walked back to my house. I haven’t been able to run since last July. I took up swimming again to stay fit, and only made it up Mt. Fuji because I was loaded with ibuprofen. Yes, even hiking was now compromised because of this injury.
In all of this, I never forgot that God had healed my knees a few years ago. Could He heal my hip, too? More importantly, would He heal me again? Well, I had no doubt in His power, but I wasn’t ready for the answer to my prayer. I refused God to ask for healing, afraid the answer would be “no.” The last thing I wanted was to be bitter and angry at God for not allowing me the pleasure of good health, so I avoided asking the question. If I don’t ask, I can’t be refused. So I just limped on, hoping that the problem would go away or something like that…but it didn’t. In fact, it got much worse.
I tried using my heel insert again but it backfired, producing a limp that was present even while walking. It was continuously sore, even while lying in bed. Through all of this I was reading about Job, reading about Paul, and reading King David’s cries to God. My heart finally came to a place where I could joyfully rest in my eternal salvation in Christ; I didn’t care about hearing “no” or if my body was broken the rest of my life. I care, but not in a resentful way. Making the conscious decision to rejoice in Christ no matter my circumstance, I was ready to ask God to heal me. A friend in Japan had previously offered to pray with me (which I declined) so I sought her out. We met in my room and prayed simply to God. Suddenly I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Again, very distinctive and unlike any other feeling. You couldn’t recreate it on your own. The weirdest thing happened; as we prayed for healing, I felt my femur growing. I thought it was my imagination. I didn’t expect that at all, just figured if God was going to do something He would just “make it go away” or something magical like that.
After our prayer my friend said, “I felt the presence of God here; it felt like ~.” It was the exact same thing I had felt. She asked if I felt any different and I was like, “well, I guess we’ll see in the morning.”
That night, everything BUT my hip hurt. My lower back, my knees, my legs all felt like they were adjusting around in there. In the morning I walked down the stairs. I stretched out. I jogged down the path. I hiked up and down a short steep trail. I’m pretty confident that God healed my hip, and that He did it by growing my leg to the appropriate length. I have a long trip ahead of me, traveling with heavy luggage and hiking around New Zealand. I guess time will tell for sure, short of a doctor’s visit and x-ray. However, none of these things will ever be needed to reinforce my confidence that God’s presence was there, that He answers prayers, and that nothing in this world holds significance compared to His majesty. Only He is worthy of our attention and devotion.
RSS Feed