Turning perspective inside out
It is a standard joke in my family that they would prefer one of them hurt or sick rather than have it happen to me. While that sounds selfless..it is because no one likes when I get sick or hurt. I don’t handle sickness or pain well since it is few and far between…and for some reason, if I catch any sickness, chances are, it will last longer when I have it and be twice as bad. All of that aside…here begins this blog:
I am going on day 3 of having an injured foot. I think due to my circumstances this week, I have come to the conclusion that unlike everyone else, exercise is bad for me…evident by my almost broken foot. Day one we decided to go to the gym to workout as we haven’t done it in awhile. Bad idea as ten minutes into the workout, I ended up getting the bones in my foot smashed between the pedal of a machine and the post. Immediately I could tell it was serious but I didn’t know how serious it was. I started praying right away that it wasn’t broken. It was a justified prayer considering I heard and felt all the bones in my foot crunch together. I tried putting weight on it but could barely stand. I decided, it must not be broken and will continue with my workout. By the time we left for home, my sneaker had become extremely tight because of my foot swelling. Soo….it began. We got home and my sister instructed me to ice it and my response was “Oh, it will be fine!! I will just go into the shower and let the hot water reduce the swelling”. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at me which is her normal response when she doesn’t want to come right out and call me stubborn. I showered, got ready for bed and noticed my foot was getting
bigger and was hurting even more. I took some aspirin and then rubbed my foot with ointment and bandaged it up.
By the next morning, I could not even walk. My first response “Are you kidding”!!! I have gone my whole life with no broken bones, even after all the crazy stuff I have done. I couldn’t possibly have one now”. So of course now I would decide to listen because I was scared. I started icing it consistently and elevating it. I was confident that by the next day, it would be much better. That did not happen. It appeared to be getting worse and I was rapidly starting to lose patience with having to hobble around.
Around 6 this morning, I had enough. I started talking to God and saying “Seriously!! It is high time that this stops hurting and goes back to normal because I prayed. I have declared healing. I am very grateful God that it is not broken, but I am ready to start being able to do what I have to normally. This is not a good time to have an injured foot. I have too much to do”. God’s response “Well then Clare, when is it a good time to have an injured foot? Would you have preferred to have an injured foot the last month when you were moving and unpacking? Would you prefer to have an injured foot for your birthday? Seems to me that there will never be an ideal time to have an injured foot. You have your perspective turned inside out”! While that might sound like a strange saying for some…think about it. If someone tells you that you have your shirt on inside out, it simply means that what should be on the outside, perspective wise, you are wearing on the inside and it needs to be corrected.
What God was saying to me is, I had a backwards way of looking at what happened to me. Yes, I was very grateful that my foot wasn’t broken, but instead of thanking God for the down time that this afforded (I have been going a mile a minute for the last month)and small amount of recovery time that it would take to heal, I was getting frustrated and debating when it would have been a better time to get injured, or preferably not at all.
When difficult things happen in our lives, we have a tendency to blame God for not protecting us or for not stepping in and stopping it. When was the last time you took a good look at something difficult you had to walk through and realized upon coming out of it, you were a stronger person. You drew closer to God because you saw Him come through in ways that you would not have ordinarily seen, had you not gone through that period. I did not blame God for what happened to me at the gym, that would have been utterly ridiculous!! That is like blaming my sister for allowing it to happen to me because she was standing so close and didn’t protect me. No, I thanked God that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I thanked Him that the damage was minimal. Remember the word says in James 1:12-18 (NIV): 12Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
I remember reading a book several years ago where the main character of the book held a grudge against a childhood bully. The bully hadn’t targeted him, but the bully had targeted his sister because of a birthmark on her face. The main character as an adult could not bring himself to forgive the bully or God. He spent his whole life blaming God for not protecting his sister and chose to walk away from God accusing Him of being a liar and a betrayer. As an adult, he ends up falling in love with a girl who helps him find his way back to God and encourages him to return home to forgive the bully. She helps him to forgive God by confronting him one day when he is going off on a tangent about how God doesn’t protect his own. He relays an incident where the bully followed his sister home one day and started throwing rocks to scare her but one of the rocks actually hits her and causes bruising. His love interest then asks him, how does he know that God did not protect his sister. Yes, it was awful what happened to her with the rock hitting her, but how did he know that God did not protect his sister; the rock could have hit her in the head where she could have been injured more severely or killed. This stops him in his tracks and makes him reflect on how he had wasted so much of his life being angry at God for what he thought was a lack of protection. He repents before God and thanks Him for saving his sister from an even more severe scenario.
God is a faithful God, whether you can see that or not. Sometimes, it requires us to take a closer look at what happened, what could have happened or what could I gain from what has happened. The next time something happens and your first response is to blame God; Stop! Take a closer look and let God’s truth shine a light on your circumstance. It just might require you to turn your perspective inside out.
