The Power of Prayer

The last post I wrote from a hotel in Grand Junction. A girl on my team had just gotten injured and I had suspicions that it was her ACL. 

Everything in my knowledge and education pointed to an ACL injury. The symptoms were classic. The pain was classic. The mechanism was classic. 

If the injury did end up being an ACL.....it would devastate the team. 

The team stopped their practice and placed their hands on the injured player, surrounded their team mate and lifted her up in prayer. 

We got MRI results back this week. This would be the official yes or no on what the injury was. I was expecting for it to show an ACL injury. 

The MRI was clean. There was nothing found. All the ligaments were clean. Everything was clean. The MRI found nothing. 

I am still in shock. Every bit of my education and expertise told me it was an ACL. The only explanation I can think of is it comes down to prayer. The only explanation that I can wrap my brain around is that in that moment when her team lifted her up in prayer....the Lord also laid his hands on her. 

I have never experienced such a display of the power of prayer. It still is giving me goosebumps. 

Prayer and torn ACL's and Faith

I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel in Grand Junction. I am traveling with the men's and women's basketball teams from CCU this weekend. The lobby is all Christmased out! And it is snowing outside....it feels like Christmas. Especially since there is a drunk lady sitting in the same lobby....she had a little too much fun at the Christmas party. 

I was sitting at practice this afternoon when one of my girls went down. She says that her knee hurts and feels "funny".  Everything she tells me points to a torn ACL. This team is already low in numbers and this is the last thing they need.  This is the part of my job as a trainer that I hate. When I have to look a girl in the eye and tell her that her season could potentially be over. 

I tell the coaches and they are obviously upset. They stop practice, tell the girls the situation. In the middle of their practice, the day before a game, they stop for five minutes, lay hands on the injured player and pray.  I have never been in a setting like this and it gives me goosebumps. Tears even come to my eyes. 

I get to thinking, how can I as an athletic trainer believe that prayers is going to heal her ACL when I know, based on physiological knowledge of the body, that that isn't the way it really works.  That is when I realized how ridiculous I was. God is so much bigger than lost games and torn ACL's!  

Why can't the creator heal the body that he created? Where is my faith?

Oh city life....

I am not a city girl. I am slowly figuring this out when I get frustrated with people in parking lots who don't look before they back out of their parking spot. Or I find myself avoiding major interstates at specific times of day. And I especially don't like those stop light camera's that take pictures of people who run red lights. 

Cities also have their charm. The outdoor mall that was decorated with Christmas decorations right after Halloween and has a Christmas tree made out of road signs.  Oh, and who can forget the abundance of Starbucks in the city. 

I will admit it, I miss Durango. I miss sitting in Durango Joe's. I miss walking down Main Street and running into at least ten people I know from church, school or work.  I miss the time when rush hour traffic was when there was construction on Hwy. 160 and the morning commute was a little backed up. 

The places our lives take us. Some have stop lights and other have road signs. Sometimes my life feels like an interstate. When I get going too fast or just run out of gas, I have to exit and re-fuel.  I have been going 100 mph on my interstate called life. I am looking for my exit ramp where I can regenerate and re-fuel. 

I admire those people....

One of my best friends is one of those people who has been through so much. The punches just keep on coming and she can never get a break.  She is back in that place again. I don't know if her heart can break anymore because it never really had time to heal. 

Suddenly, my paper I am struggling to write and the minor details of my life don't matter so much anymore. 

What she doesn't know is that she is one of the strongest people I have ever met. She has been knocked down so many time, but every time she gets up, dusts herself off and comes up swinging. 

What she doesn't know is that she is strong enough to get through this. The Lord has molded her to be that strong. 

What she doesn't know is that she is such a Christ like example to me. Every storm she hits she see the rainbows. She looks up and lets the Lord's grace and mercy pour down on her. 

What she doesn't know is that I have no words to comfort her. There is nothing that I can say that can get her through this. Ben and Jerry's ice cream or the strongest alcohol can't take care of this one. 

What she doesn't know is that I admire her. I admire those people like her. 

Seasons

There is forecast of snow tonight. Not much, but it marks the transition from the end of fall to the beginning of winter. 

This time in my life also marks a change in seasons. Just recently, I have decided to not return to Sonlight as the program director. Ending six years with them. Sonlight is the place where I grew up. I owe that place, Mary and Winston so much.  At the fall retreat a few weeks ago I said my goodbyes. I felt as if I was leaving family. I have had the honor and blessing of watching these kids grow up into amazing people. They have all left a mark on my heart.

On the drive back to the city I realized that I left so much unsaid. I felt like telling everyone of those kids how amazing they were and how big God is. So, instead I decided to start this blog. I have so much to say and so much to tell people, that I need to get it out of my head on onto this blog.