My Fat Toe and God – Part One

Ask anyone born before 1980 and they’ll affirm I’m not old. Ask anyone who knows fitness, and they’ll affirm I’m far from a stellar athlete. I do what’s necessary to be healthy, but I’m definitley not the one accused of over-exercising. Despite the fact that I’m not old and I’m not overextending my body, I’ve still found myself the patient of a podiatrist, an orthopedist, and a physical therapist for 2 separate injuries over the past year. Sigh.The latest injury has been an embarrassingly large toe that has decided to remain swollen for over 3 months, despite lots of care and 3 trips to a podiatrist. Through both of these medical adventures, I’ve made an observation:

Everyone has a limp.

While you may not care about my fat toe (and I wouldn’t blame you!), I do think it’s worth a moment of your time to borrow my perspective. As I sat in the waiting room for my 4th appointment in the same number of months, I started to wonder if I should even waste my time and money. My toe seemed insignificant compared with the woman struggling in the wheelchair, the teenager rolling on his scooter with his leg immobilized from a wrestling injury, or the mom who was in an enormous amount of pain from learning how to use crutches. All of a sudden, my toe seemed a lot less urgent and a lot less painful.[bctt tweet="Only when a storm hits do you realize how many sunny days you’ve been taking for granted."]Perspective does that. Perspective helps us step back, take a deep breath, and realize we have it pretty good. It isn’t the game of always knowing someone has it worse… rather, it’s choosing to be grateful for what’s good. Only when a storm hits or a toe hurts do you realize how many sunny days or functional toes you’ve been taking for granted.My initial thought was to just forget the whole toe thing. Everyone has a limp, so I can just join the parade, right? What does it matter if I just buy ugly shoes when I already wear a size 12? Seriously. But then it occurred to me that, while we need to keep our metaphorical toe in perspective, it’s also ridiculous to just settle. The truth is that outside the doctor’s office, there are plenty of people who are able to run.

So, when do you accept your limp and learn from it, and when do you refuse to settle?

Check back next week and we’ll tackle that important question. In the meantime, ask the Lord for perspective on the things in your life causing you to limp.