Risking, Falling, Rising
A thick and fluffy blanket of snow sparkled like glitter in the morning sunlight, perfectly and completely untouched as it spread across acres of fields that we drove by. In the distance, the mountains also sparkled with deep snow drifts in their crooks and valleys.
My window fogged up when I breathed on it because I was staring out the car window so closely and intently, as if the anticipation of being in the snow, in the mountains, caused me to unknowingly lean forward.
Every year around this time, I get the ski fever. My family only gets to go to Colorado to snow ski once a year, and its like I get hungry for it just like your stomach starts growling for lunch around 12:00 in the afternoon.
This year added even more excitement than normal because after skiing for 14 years, I was finally going to learn how to snowboard. My sister and I geared up, rented our boards, and waddled over to the bunny hill to greet our instructor. He probably had no idea what he was getting into by volunteering to spend his afternoon with us, but I guarantee you that we gave him a good time. I wonder if he has ever had any girls as light-hearted and goofy as we were. We never stopped smiling and laughing at each other, not even when we fell. In fact, that was when we laughed the hardest, and I caught him smiling pretty big several times, too.
After three hours, we were on the green slopes, doing heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel turns back and forth. Just when I was getting confident, I took a tumble and caught myself with my wrist. Now I know why you aren't supposed to do that; it hurts.
After several bags of ice, doses of ibuprofen, and an x-ray, I left the clinic with a fractured arm in a bulky splint. My biggest concern was how I was going to get my ski coat and mitten over it. I was glad the doctor forgot to tell me that I shouldn't ski any more, because then I would have had to disobey her. When you only get to ski once a year, nothing can stop you...not even a broken arm. I was done snowboarding, but I wasn't done skiing. I couldn't decide whether breaking my arm after three hours of boarding on the first day was really awesome or really stupid...probably a little bit of both. Either way, it was totally worth it.
Sometimes you try new things, and you get hurt. I know that's easy for me to say since all I ended up with was a broken arm. But you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be back on a snowboard next year. That's because it was too much fun to let one unfortunate fall stop me forever. However, I just might wear a helmet and wrist guards next time.
About a week later, after the excitement of breaking my arm wore off and I was frustrated with the soreness and not being able to tie my own shoes, I began to ask myself, What's the lesson in all this? What are you trying to teach me, God?
I really believe that everything that happens to us has a purpose behind it. One of my favorite things about God is how He can take anything and everything that happens to us and turn it into an opportunity to teach us something about Himself. Even something as simple as a broken arm on a ski trip. I read once that a good question to ask in any cursumstance is this: What is God trying to speak to me, teach me, or show me that He couldn't do at any other time and in any other way?
Maybe God sees us and each of our unique circumstances as the perfect setting to teach us something or show us something that He couldn't do at any other time or in any other way.
I still think the lessons learned from my broken arm are incomplete. Consider then yet to be discovered. You may very well see another blog in a week from now that revisits this topic and the hidden purposes God had behind it all. But for now, I have learned a few simple lessons.
First, God calls us to try new things. He invites us to be bold and daring in living out and sharing our faith. He invites us to step out of our comfort zones to dive deeper into relationship with Him. He invites us to trust more, sacrifice more, surrender more. He invites us to love and serve His people in new ways. All of this requires venturing out and trying new things, and sometimes we get hurt in the process. Hearts may break, disappointment may come, the unexpected may happen. We may fall or others may push us down. But God is a healer. The Healer. It is worth the risk and the pain every time in order to experience the joy of following Christ on whatever path He leads us.
The pain of a broken wrist is not even worth comparing to the pain that some of us face. Some pain is so severe that it may keep you from wanting to risk anything ever again, but hear God's promise in Isaiah 43:19 and remember the lessons learned from my snowboarding failure. God says, "See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." He invites us to participate in this new thing that He is doing, and He promises to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28). He even promises to take our pain and turn it into something beautiful (Isaiah 61).
So as we begin this new year, consider prayerfully what "new thing" God is doing in your life. What are your circumstances teaching you that couldn't be done at any other time or in any other way? Strap in your boots and let God teach you something new. Even when you fall, get back up, let Him bandage your wounds, trust in His healing, and then keep pressing on to know Him more. In the end, I know you will see that it is totally worth it, and you will be standing up again in His strength. For nothing surpasses the greatness of knowing Christ and following Him.
My window fogged up when I breathed on it because I was staring out the car window so closely and intently, as if the anticipation of being in the snow, in the mountains, caused me to unknowingly lean forward.
Every year around this time, I get the ski fever. My family only gets to go to Colorado to snow ski once a year, and its like I get hungry for it just like your stomach starts growling for lunch around 12:00 in the afternoon.
This year added even more excitement than normal because after skiing for 14 years, I was finally going to learn how to snowboard. My sister and I geared up, rented our boards, and waddled over to the bunny hill to greet our instructor. He probably had no idea what he was getting into by volunteering to spend his afternoon with us, but I guarantee you that we gave him a good time. I wonder if he has ever had any girls as light-hearted and goofy as we were. We never stopped smiling and laughing at each other, not even when we fell. In fact, that was when we laughed the hardest, and I caught him smiling pretty big several times, too.
After three hours, we were on the green slopes, doing heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel turns back and forth. Just when I was getting confident, I took a tumble and caught myself with my wrist. Now I know why you aren't supposed to do that; it hurts.
After several bags of ice, doses of ibuprofen, and an x-ray, I left the clinic with a fractured arm in a bulky splint. My biggest concern was how I was going to get my ski coat and mitten over it. I was glad the doctor forgot to tell me that I shouldn't ski any more, because then I would have had to disobey her. When you only get to ski once a year, nothing can stop you...not even a broken arm. I was done snowboarding, but I wasn't done skiing. I couldn't decide whether breaking my arm after three hours of boarding on the first day was really awesome or really stupid...probably a little bit of both. Either way, it was totally worth it.
Sometimes you try new things, and you get hurt. I know that's easy for me to say since all I ended up with was a broken arm. But you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be back on a snowboard next year. That's because it was too much fun to let one unfortunate fall stop me forever. However, I just might wear a helmet and wrist guards next time.
About a week later, after the excitement of breaking my arm wore off and I was frustrated with the soreness and not being able to tie my own shoes, I began to ask myself, What's the lesson in all this? What are you trying to teach me, God?
I really believe that everything that happens to us has a purpose behind it. One of my favorite things about God is how He can take anything and everything that happens to us and turn it into an opportunity to teach us something about Himself. Even something as simple as a broken arm on a ski trip. I read once that a good question to ask in any cursumstance is this: What is God trying to speak to me, teach me, or show me that He couldn't do at any other time and in any other way?
Maybe God sees us and each of our unique circumstances as the perfect setting to teach us something or show us something that He couldn't do at any other time or in any other way.
I still think the lessons learned from my broken arm are incomplete. Consider then yet to be discovered. You may very well see another blog in a week from now that revisits this topic and the hidden purposes God had behind it all. But for now, I have learned a few simple lessons.
First, God calls us to try new things. He invites us to be bold and daring in living out and sharing our faith. He invites us to step out of our comfort zones to dive deeper into relationship with Him. He invites us to trust more, sacrifice more, surrender more. He invites us to love and serve His people in new ways. All of this requires venturing out and trying new things, and sometimes we get hurt in the process. Hearts may break, disappointment may come, the unexpected may happen. We may fall or others may push us down. But God is a healer. The Healer. It is worth the risk and the pain every time in order to experience the joy of following Christ on whatever path He leads us.
The pain of a broken wrist is not even worth comparing to the pain that some of us face. Some pain is so severe that it may keep you from wanting to risk anything ever again, but hear God's promise in Isaiah 43:19 and remember the lessons learned from my snowboarding failure. God says, "See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." He invites us to participate in this new thing that He is doing, and He promises to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28). He even promises to take our pain and turn it into something beautiful (Isaiah 61).
So as we begin this new year, consider prayerfully what "new thing" God is doing in your life. What are your circumstances teaching you that couldn't be done at any other time or in any other way? Strap in your boots and let God teach you something new. Even when you fall, get back up, let Him bandage your wounds, trust in His healing, and then keep pressing on to know Him more. In the end, I know you will see that it is totally worth it, and you will be standing up again in His strength. For nothing surpasses the greatness of knowing Christ and following Him.
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