Step Confidently Into Newness of Life
According to the BJSM:
"Knee injury accounts for 41% of all sports injuries. One fifth of them involve the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Other injuries include meniscus tears, posterior cruciate ligament tears, articular cartilage damages and avulsion of ligaments and tendons."
To address that staggering number of knee injuries, it's estimated that there are over 800,000 total knee replacement surgeries performed each year in the U.S. alone (not including the hundreds of thousands of "lesser" knee repair surgeries).
Post-surgical healing and rehabilitation can take weeks, if not months, to complete. Ultimately, most people see significant improvement. Yet many people report that they are hesitant to use their new knee(s), frearful of trusting it to support them or fearful of re-injuring themselves. For example:
Once I was up early going through my morning routine playing basketball with a friend, when all of a sudden I turned the wrong way, and tore my ACL. After months of rehab, I went out to play light ball just to see if I could do it. I moved around on the court as if I were still injured -- I had not adapted to a healed ACL!
The coach (and my doctors and therapists) told me I could move, but mentally I was afraid to move the leg. subconsciously controlled by my fear of getting injured. I went into protection mode because fear had gripped me.
I was protecting, not realizing or acknowledging that I had a new knee.
We often protect what's been previously injured thinking that it will happen again. I had to ask my self why I was not willing to use the new knee. It's because I had not yet adapted to the new me.
Many of us limp into the Kingdom, bruised, battered, and lame from the brokenness of past lifestyles, sins, and hurtful experiences. We come to Jesus, asking healing for our brokenness, and He is doesn't let us down. In fact, Scripture states, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV).
God calls us to live in light of our newness of life. Why walk and limp through life when your very being has been made utterly new. "[You] were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:21b-24, ESV).
Step out confidently in faith, without fear, to walk in newness of life!
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7, NLT).
Jesus Is Just A Crutch
Crutches are an extremely helpful medical device if you are taken lame by either injury or surgical intervention. The premise is simple. Pop them under your arms and let them bear your wait so that you can stand and ambulate.
Of course, they’ve become quite the metaphor for “weak” people needing to lean on something or someone to be able to get along in life.
The last words you want to hear is someone telling you that you are leaning on a crutch in life. They might as well say, “Man, what’s wrong with you? You’re so weak and impotent. Grow up and stand on your own two feet.”
If you are a Christian, you’re probably no stranger to someone accusing you of leaning on your faith as a crutch.
To that point, author/speaker Mark Cahill has this to say:
Next time you hear someone say that Christianity is just a crutch for weak people say, "Yes, it is. I've had a bad fall into sin and I'm crippled. Without Jesus, I can do nothing!!"
"... for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5, NIV).
Own your crutch! Wear it like a badge of honor. Place your whole weight squarely on Jesus. Yoke yourself to Him, and He will bear your obligation, your sin, your burden. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, NIV).
People Are Training Wheels, God Is The Ride
Every person you know, given the right set of circumstances, will disappoint you. Many of them probably have already! Who hasn’t been the victim of broken promises, or lying, or betrayal, or even abuse?
Don’t take it too personally. People are fallen, self-centered creatures. Even by human standards, we are all dysfunctional, unable to love the way God intended. So, in order to maximize the benefits of your various relationships, you must learn to keep your dependency on others in proper perspective.
Remember the training wheels that helped you to learn how to ride your bike when you were a kid? You must come to see people as training wheels, preparing you for something bigger.
In these relationships you learned the importance of telling the truth and of keeping promises; you learned how to find comfort and receive assurance; you learned how to serve and to be served. You also learned to look to people for affirmation and inspiration. This dependency was necessary for your social development and maturity.
But at some point, as you became more skilled, the training wheels began to scrape and bump the road, slowing you down. They also prevented you from leaning into the turns and enjoying the full experience of the ride. Training wheels are great for learning how to ride, but eventually, they will begin to hold you back.
Your dependency on people works the same way. At some point, you will discover that dependency on people has made the journey more difficult. Rather than just propping you up, you begin to see that the people in your life do just as much to hold you back.
No one enters the Tour de France with training wheels. Neither can you break free so long as you are riding through life depending on people when you should be leaning entirely on God. For it is only when the wheels are finally removed, and the drag and restrictions are gone, that you will finally be able to ride freely.
The hope and trust we have been taught to place in people finds its rightful place in God. Unlike people, God loves us perfectly. The comfort He offers us isn’t temporary or fickle, but eternal and sure. He will never lie to us, never betray us and never abuse us. He is our joy and our reason for living.
So, never forget, people are training wheels, God is the ride!
"This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord ... “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him" (Jeremiah 17:5,7).