This past Saturday I participated in a sprint triathlon as a way of giving my knee a final test for recovery. It went pretty well, by my very low standards. I swam, biked, and ran about as good as I can in my current shape. I do think I can do better- I might have one more triathlon in me. My knee felt pretty good.
The truth is, my knee will never be as healthy as it once was. There will always be a damaged ligament and the scar tissue from the reconstructed portions cause regular stiffness. Still, I can walk well, ride my bike fine, and run decently. How blessed I truly am given the severity of my injury. I honestly have come to terms with the likelihood that playing soccer with my beloved RPC United in an adult league is probably no longer a reality. I got to play competitively longer than most has-beens. My competitive juices will have to find other outlets...
Would I want it to happen again? No.
Will my knee ever be completely right? No.
Would I change things? No. It's part of who I am-part of who God is making me to be.
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As a fellow Yankees fan I am sure at this stage of your competitive athletics coming to a close you can appreciate Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech, and as a fellow Christian/Calvinist/Reformed/Presbyterian you shall substitute the “Luck” with “Divine Providence.” ; ) Godspeed, John Glenn!
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?
Sure I’m lucky.
Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?
Sure I’m lucky.
When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies -- that’s something.
When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter -- that’s something.
When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body -- it’s a blessing.
When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed -- that’s the finest I know.
So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."
Lou Gehrig July 4, 1939
Watching this moving tribute to God’s sovereigns hands upon your recent pain-filled battle in the flesh verses your victory in the spirit, took my thoughts captive to last night’s Bible study with the men at Lansing. We were rightly handling Galatians 2: 11-21 and of course we spent some time dissecting Paul’s great exhortation, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Last night I read a foot note in my SWORD taken from a sermon Dr Bryan Chapel preached at Redeemer on 3/4/07. Dr Chapel rightly stated, “To have confidence in the flesh is to make a mockery of Christ atoning work on the cross.”
My dear brother and brave solider of faith, you are indeed taking no confidence in the flesh! And to Him goes all the glory!
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