I broke my foot!
I’m just getting back in the swing of things and I ran into a little bit of a speed bump. I played basketball this week with some friends and ended up with a broken foot.
An incredibly embarrassing experience because it was with a group of people, many of whom I was meeting for the first time and also my first time to play ball in about 5 years. After missing a couple short jump shots and 4 or 5 easy layups in the first game, I finally made a nice shot halfway through game 2 with a hand in my face from about 20 feet.
Feeling pretty confident now. The best player on the other team looked me and said “You made that?” Obviously, a surprise because of my poor start in the first game. I of course humbly responded “I’m sure it was just an accident” knowing I am about to sink shot after shot and carry my team to the championship of our backyard tournament.
Unfortunately things did not go exactly as planned. On the very next play, while chasing down a loose ball about to go out of bounds, I landed hard on the side of my right foot and instantly felt a pop. Oh no… I have broken a few bones in my life and instantly knew that something was wrong. Instantly, the pain was bad enough that I could put any weight on the foot and had to hop off the court.
Fortunately, one of my teammates knew a local Doctor who runs a clinic with an X-Ray machine and gave me his number. I was able to get in that night and they were able to confirm that I had broken a bone in my foot.
So, now I am stumbling around Uganda on crutches in a cast for the next few weeks. This was not part of the plan. I have a bunch of trips coming up around Uganda and Kenya and this is more than a little inconvenient. Why now, only 2 weeks in to a 3 month trip? Is God trying to tell me something? Is it just another roadblock from the enemy trying to prevent our work?
Well, I’m not sure! But I do know that it is an opportunity to practice what you preach, literally in this case. Last Sunday I was invited to preach at a Church in Mbale and the message that God put on my heart was Joy. I have been studying Philippians and told the Church how Paul learned to take Joy in all situations knowing that he was in “Christ”. Even from prison, Paul told the Church that he takes joy knowing that his imprisonment was for Christ. Obviously a broken foot is not even on the scale of a death sentence for sharing the gospel but the message Paul wanted to relate was the same. Take Joy in knowing that you are in Christ, that you are a citizen of heaven and ACT LIKE IT!
So I guess that’s what I’ll try to do over the next few weeks.
God Bless,
Mike
If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at [email protected]
