This morning on KWRD-FM the guest speaker was a preacher from an inner city church who really had a great message for all of us "dormant" Christians. While it was full of details, I will give you what I pulled from the message.
Christians have become lax and are willing to give up after just a few rounds of defeat (to use a boxing analogy). The speaker told of a boxer who was cut, pummeled, dazed, knocked down, and bleeding in each round of a fight. The trainer kept asking the battered warrior if he wanted to stop the fight and the warrior said, "Let me go just one more round." He said this after each punishing round. At the end of 20-25 rounds of total and complete punishment, the battered warrior was able to KNOCK OUT his opponent.
We are like that battered warrior and the Devil is our opponent. We tend to give up after only a few rounds of attacks from our enemy and if we just stood up and said, "Just one more round" and let God do his thing, we would eventually overcome Satan's attack. The nice thing about this strategy is that we become very tough over time (since we are assaulted daily) and able to resist the fiery arrows that our Enemy slings at us. How many marriages could have saved or how many suicides could have been prevented if the people involved would have just gone "one more round". If you have Jesus Christ in your corner, you can go the distance.
As you most likely know, I had back surgery a couple of months ago. Immediately after the surgery, I was sore but I felt pretty good. After about 30 days, the back brace was removed and I was instructed to exercise my back so it would get stronger. I thought I was doing enough, but I have a feeling I wasn't. A couple of weeks ago my entire lower back was very sore and still. It was incredibly painful to bend more than 20-30 degrees and I was unable to reach my knees without horrible pain. I took the rest of my Feldene and I felt better in a few days, but a week later, I was in pain again. My boss noticed this and asked me if I was OK so I explained to him the situation. He told me that his wife had the same problem after her surgery and it was due to the fact she did not exercise her back enough. I was a bit surprised. I thought I was giving my back enough exercise (I had mowed the grass, I stretched a bit, did various yard tasks, and I walk the dogs 1-2 times a day) but maybe I was not.
I slowly picked up the stretching and notice that while I was still sore, I felt a bit better. Then, last night after a lot of stretching I jogged a bit while I walked my dog. Oh my, HOW IT HURT. I know you must be thinking that I am insane, but when I got back to the house, I felt good! Not 25 year old good, but but as good as I did 12 months ago. Now of course this morning I am sore, but I am stretching. I am also going to make sure I walk as much as I can to keep the muscles warm and limber.
This morning I tried jogging a bit but I was not able to go but 100 meters before I had to stop and walk.
BTW, AAA thank you for you note. Your blog and your comments are missed, but as a student you are busy. I understand that.
And for anyone who is going to have back surgery, listen to the doctor and exercise that back. I will not lie to you and say it will be fun. Physical therapy after surgery is more painful than the recovery period, but it is worth it. I shared this information with my neighbor who is going to have disks fused in his back soon. He had no idea what he was facing. I was not trying to scare him, just prepare him.
Keep me in your prayers as I continue down the painful road to a healthier back.
No comments:
Post a Comment