Oh, my aching back!

I have had a bad back which goes out at most inopportune moments since I was hurt in a carwreck when I was a senior in high school. I know it as well as I do anything. Today I came down to the kitchen, unloaded the dishwasher, and bam, I was down for the count! I crept over to the couch and the heating pad and knew it was all over for me for a day. All I could depend on was my brace when I could get upstairs to get it and Motrin and Ben Gay (when I could get to the downstairs bathroom to get it.)

So, cancel everything and sit down and enjoy the confinement. It was not a major thing; but it was a thing to be reckoned with for a few hours. Priorities had to be reset or given a holiday! And I started rethinking my day in light of the enforced change of plans! I still had the computer--I could think about stuff. First, I would go thru my daily notebook which I cling to (Mattie Henry's composition book black/white) and I could list only the things I could do without standing or moving from the couch. New listing becomes apparent easily.

This is theology in the raw! Decide what you can do, in light and in spite of the circumstances dictated by your standing, and move from there. It is like the 4 men who tore up their neighbor's roof and let the paralytic down in front of Jesus to be healed. Jesus said to him, "Rise up and walk". I love that story. It has everything I love: devotion of friends who would stop at nothing to help, Christ healing. They didn't just ask for prayer; they put "feets" to their prayers.

That's what I am going to do with this day. Take the medicine I need and think about someone other than myself and my aching back. Don't waste the day waiting for relief or sympathy or feeling sorry for oneself! Think about my role as one of the four friends, instead of the paralytic. I am far from being the paralytic. How far am I from being a pallet-holder for someone?