It was hard for me to imagine that Adrian Peterson and RG3 went through exactly what I went through. Sure, they had underwater treadmills and personal physical therapists, but their first week was probably a lot like mine. Maybe even worse, because their legs are much longer than mine and toilets are basically all the same height. It's just so hard to imagine those who I consider strong and powerful humbled to the point of helplessness. When we turn on the TV, we see pictures of D Rose taking practice jumpers and Kobe standing with crutches in Staples. We don't see the tossing and turning at night and the moaning and groaning of constant pain. We see RG3 and AP rehabbing in a weight room and we don't see them needing help to use the bathroom or scratch their back.
This all might sound obvious to you, but I just never realized just how helpless even uber-rich super-athletes can become. I guess I just assumed it was like any old ankle sprain - that they just took some time off and magically got better. I never imagined that guys like AP and Kobe would ever be brought to the low point of not even being able to use the bathroom alone (Sorry I keep mentioning the bathroom. It just really stuck with me).
It hit me one Sunday having communion at Knox (I seem to get a lot of epiphanies there) what "This is my body broken for you" really means. Jesus is infinitely more rich and powerful than AP and Kobe and was brought infinitely lower. Jesus felt the shame of being helplessly naked in front of others and the excruciating pain the body can bring. If it was so difficult to wrap my head around the fact that rich, athletic guys could be brought low, how much more difficult must it be to understand how an all-powerful self-sufficient God could be brought low! Obviously I can't claim to understand it, but I'm glad that this experience has deepened, if even slightly, my understanding (of my lack of understanding) of the magnitude of sacrifice that Christ has made on our behalf!
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
taking the very nature of a servant,
made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
- Philippians 2: 6-8
yea, with surgeries like these, it not only humbles you, but also makes you realize how blessed you are to actually walk.
ReplyDeletethis will forever be something that you will remember.