knee

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I Was Wrong But It’s Not Irreversible – Part 2

In my last post( read here) I wrote that doing something wrong is not irreversible. I had been doing up the straps on my knee brace in the wrong order for about twenty-nine years.

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The brace is still a saviour for me when it comes to sports – especially hockey – but for the last several months my knee has not been feeling very good. It’s been sore and sometimes a little swollen. 

But since I discovered the proper order to tighten the straps on my brace, it has made a huge difference. 

For the last while, I needed at least a day after I played for my knee to feel good enough for me to consider playing hockey again. Now my knee no longer feels sore, unstable, and tender for a period of time.

Not only have I corrected the wrong I had been committing for nearly thirty years, but in correcting that wrong I have seen an improvement in my knee’s stability. 

It is never too late to consider correcting something you have, for a long time, been doing wrong. 

When we elect a government, that year after year puts the country into a deeper and deeper debt position with seemingly uncontrolled spending, it is still correctable. 

We’ve seen it in the past. Where a government has been in power for years and an election has brought a new party into power, that change has brought the country back into fiscal responsibility. 

It’s also true with your conscience. 

We all have one. It’s that little inner sensation that tells us when we are doing something wrong or doing something right. 

Time after time we can go against our conscience in doing wrong and, after a while, we won’t have any sensation regarding that wrong. We will become numb to it; it won’t even register in our conscience any more. 

This can go on for years – just like all the years I was doing up my brace in the wrong order. 

But it is not irreversible.

If we admit we’ve done wrong – even though we don’t have a sensation about it from years and years of doing it – we can still correct it.

And when we start to correct the wrong, the amazing thing is that the sensation starts to slowly come back. Our conscience has never left us; it just grows quiet when we silence it. It can come back, be renewed, and be healthy again. 

I have a friend who smoked for years and years. He never thought anything of it, never considered anyone around him who didn’t smoke. 

Finally, after decades of smoking, he quit. Now he can’t stand the smell of cigarettes; he can’t bear being in a space where others are smoking. He thinks it’s insensitive of them to smoke with others present. His sensitivity came back. 

A long history of doing wrong is never irreversible.

Here’s the thing: You may have turned your back on God for years. Maybe you’ve never considered Him, never cared for Him. Don’t think your years of neglect and possible abusiveness towards God is irreversible. No, you can decide to reverse your wrongs by believing in Christ to save you from all the wrongs you’ve done for however many years you’ve been doing them. The Bible says you are then a new creation. It’s reversible. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:  What have you previously been thinking is irreversible for you? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Was Wrong But It’s Not Irreversible – Part 1

Don’t ever think doing something wrong for a long time is irreversible.

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When you do something wrong for long enough, one has a sense that it will be permanent.

It’s probably true with some things that if you set a pattern, and that pattern is in place for a long time, it will not be broken. So if the pattern is wrong, that’s just what it will be.

Recently I was checking the knee brace I’ve worn for almost three decades. I wear it when I play sports, and particularly sports that require some side to side movement. 

I don’t wear my brace when I ride my bike or play golf, but I do for most other active sports – it gets lots of use.

Since I’ve had this brace for years, and my knee has been bugging me for several months now (I’ve written about that here), I decided to do some checking. Maybe it was time for a new brace. 

I looked up on the internet the company that makes my brace and found some instructional videos on their website. I clicked on one that was specific for my particular brace. 

The video was about how to properly put on the brace. I almost clicked it off because I certainly knew how to put mine on. But since it was such a short video, I watched the whole thing. 

What I discovered was that I’ve been putting on my brace the wrong way for almost 30 years! 

Now the brace is sophisticated – it’s custom made to my knee – but it’s not hard to put on.  

… But I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.

I’ve been doing it wrong in the order I do up the straps. There are only four straps but they need to be secured properly and in the right order. 

I was stunned that I had been doing them up incorrectly all this time. 

The next day at hockey I followed the order from the video. I secured the strap under my knee and then the strap at the bottom of my calf. Then I moved to the strap just above my knee but didn’t secure it quite as tight as I normally would have. I finished with the strap around my thigh, done up a little looser. 

Wow, what a difference! My brace felt so much better while I played and it seemed to stay in place without moving down my leg. 

It was amazing.

Who would have thought that, for all these years, I have gotten away with doing up my brace incorrectly? Yet the brace didn’t break and it still provided some support to my knee. 

I would not have been able to play hockey or baseball or volleyball without it. I would not have been able to ski without wearing that brace … but I’ve been using it incorrectly this whole time. 

I have more to share on this in my next post, but …

Here’s the thing: It’s not that surprising that we can be doing something wrong for a long time and not really have any repercussions. This happens with some sin. We can live in a sin for a long time without seemingly suffering any ill effects from it – no repercussions, no judgements. But there will be a judgement day. As long as you are breathing, you have time to right your wrong.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been doing wrong for a long time that you should change? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Waiting Is Killing Me

I may be waiting to exercise for a while because I overdid it this weekend. 

Elton John once recorded a song called, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word”. “Sorry” is a hard word, but I have another contender for the hardest word … waiting.

No, you’re not waiting for me to say the hardest word, “waiting” is the hardest word. 

There is no spring in this spring, there is no jump in this spring’s step. I think I’ve noticed that the leaves on the trees that had started to come out are now shrinking back a little.

We all want to get outside and do things, but the weather is not letting that happen. 

And we are all waiting – waiting for some sunny, warmer weather to come along. 

At this point it doesn’t even have to be that sunny or that warm, just not raining and windy.

I’ve been known to be able to wait for things to happen, but I’m really getting to the limit of my waitability. … I don’t think that’s a word, but you know what I’m saying. My ability to wait is seriously being taxed to the limit.

The other day I played hockey and the following day my knee was a little sore. That’s not unusual. I have a torn ACL and I’ve found that, as I’ve gotten older, I need to rest it after an hour and a half of hockey.

It was sore the following day as well. 

But since it wasn’t that bad, and I did have hockey that morning, I played.

After the game, my knee was a little sorer than it had been the previous few days … but I didn’t think much about it.

We’d had some rain and the forecast showed more rain to come; but it was momentarily nice out. So though I’d already played hockey on Saturday morning, I thought I’d better get out and get a mountain bike ride in. 

I’ve only been out twice so far this year.  

I had a good ride but afterwards I noticed my knee was a little swollen. … That’s never a good sign.

I’ve lived with a wonky knee for years so often I just keep going. 

Late that afternoon I thought maybe I should cut the lawn. It didn’t really need it, but with rain in the forecast, I figured I needed to cut it while I could.

By the time I finished the lawn, I was really feeling my knee and walking like a cross between Frankenstein and a guy who just had a hip replaced.

It wasn’t pretty … and I was a little late in realizing I should give my knee a rest.

… Even though all this was caused by the weather we’re having and my inability to wait any longer. 

For everyone else out there, this might be a good thing. With me on the sideline for a little while, I’m sure the weather is going to be just fine now! 

Here’s the thing: Our inability to wait on God causes us to do things that either take us in the wrong direction or make things worse. The Bible is filled with examples of people who tried to help out God, or hurry Him along (Sarah, Saul, Peter). It never went well. The best we can do is be patient, and increase our waitability. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to wait for just a little longer? Leave your comments below.

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Some Injuries Tempt You

When it comes to injuries, I’ve had my fair share … but I’m tempted to ignore some more than others.

I’ve had injuries where there was nothing I could do but wait until the injury was better before I resumed activity. 

I think of the many times I’ve hurt my left knee – I have a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). Before I knew what that was, I had injured that knee many times. 

My surgeon went in and cut out a portion of my cartilage and decided that I could treat the ACL with a brace – not a cheap, off-the-shelf kind of brace, but one that was moulded to fit my knee exactly. It was pretty pricy and, over about 25 years, I’ve had two made.

When I injure that knee, I’m out of commission. I hobble around for a week or two, but know my knee won’t be stable again for another few weeks.  

There is no playing hockey, no exercise involving my legs at all. I can only sit around and get out of shape. 

But there are other kinds of injuries that tease you a little. You get hurt but think, “It’s not that bad; I can still keep going. I just won’t go as hard as normal.” 

… In theory that’s great, but in reality it doesn’t work out that way.

Recently, I pulled a groin muscle playing hockey. It didn’t seem that bad; it was more of a nagging kind of pain … you know, one that you can play through. 

“This injury isn’t going to sideline me,” I decided. I played hockey a few days later with the idea that I would take it easy and not skate too hard.

The problem was the game was fast. There were a lot of young guys on the other team so our team had to work to keep up.  

Without thinking, just keeping pace with the level of play, I found myself skating pretty hard at times. In fact, I could feel a little pain when I took off quickly or tried to out-skate a guy on my heels. 

I could do it. It was the kind of injury that wasn’t going to hold me back. 

But I paid for it the next day. It was sore to walk without a limp. Even getting in and out of the car required some delicate manoeuvring. And when I slipped on an icy patch of sidewalk, I thought I tore the muscle more. 

This injury that wasn’t too bad, and had tempting me to keep going, had just gotten worse. Now I was looking at having this nagging injury for a very long time – maybe all season. 

So, I’ve made the decision that I’m going to stop skating until this thing gets better. 

I might miss a week of hockey, but it’s better than playing with that nagging pain every time I move a certain way. 

Here’s the thing: There are some things in your life about which you think, “I can keep doing this; it’s not that bad; it doesn’t hurt me, or my witness; it doesn’t cause pain to anyone else.” You may think you have it all under control, but the reality is you need to stop it. That thing will just nag at you and will, at some point, become a problem that forces you to stop. Listen to the Lord’s voice quietly telling you to stop now before it gets worse.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What might you be doing that’s not that bad, but you really need to stop doing? Leave your comments below.

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I Knew He Was Out To Get Me!

I find myself wondering what goes through people’s minds when they do something that just seems wrong.  I wonder that a lot when I drive … like the person in front of me the other day who slowed down to about 10 km/hr just to get into the other lane. What were they thinking?!

It happens often to me, so maybe it’s me and not them … or, maybe everyone is out to get me.  Ya, that’s it.  People are trying to mess with me … Ok, enough of that nonsense.

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This week I was playing hockey and a guy just smoked me (hit me really hard).  Out of nowhere he knocked me flying.  I never saw him coming.  Lying on the ice, I had that thought, “What was he thinking?  This is NOT contact hockey.”  In fact, I said it out loud a few times, “What were you thinking?!”

When I’m in my car, I never get an answer to that question.  On this occasion, I did.  He said, “You turned right into me.”  I couldn’t believe it!  Even if I did, he should’ve stopped or gone around me.  But no, he decided to run me over from behind like a freight train!

I was sprawled on the ice – not hurt, just annoyed.  As I got back to playing, I noticed the guy.  In the old days, I would have marked him and stuck it to him later in some way. But, I’m pretty chill now, and put it out of my mind.

I did notice, however, that he was pretty big, but not all that agile out there.  I figured he had a head of steam behind him and when I turned to the net, he either couldn’t stop in time, or didn’t have the maneuverability to change direction.  I got shmucked in the process.

As I kept playing, I started to notice that my knee was a little sore (not really bad, not enough to stop playing, just enough to notice).  I wondered if it was going to be worse after the game.  But I kept playing.

Later on after hockey, as my knee WAS getting worse, I realized I wouldn’t be able to do my exercises that day.  That was upsetting since I had just stopped taking one of my medications to determine if it was causing some muscle pain I’m experiencing.

This was an official trial, by the way.  A nurse had suggested I stop the drug for a week to see if the symptoms went away.  Here I was, one day in, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to exercise much for the next week.  The trial was a bust.

Hey, maybe people are trying to mess with me!  Just kidding … I started back on the drug the next day and will resume my trial when my knee is feeling a little better.

Here’s the thing:  When a few things happen, we start to wonder if there is a conspiracy out there.  Sometimes, we over spiritualize by thinking we’ve done something wrong and God is punishing us, or Satan is trying to get us.  We make up scenarios in our minds about what is happening, and they’re always bigger there.  In reality, mostly it’s just life.  It’s not an act of God, or Satan, or a conspiracy against us.  So, the key to dealing with things that happen is to depend on God THROUGH them.  Don’t point a finger, blame, or make things up; just trust Him through it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  When life happens, how do you keep yourself from creating theories in your mind? Leave your comment below.