Remembering the Past...

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Don't worry, I'll get back to the Four Questions soon.  But this is important too.  As we walk through the Four Questions, other questions may pop up.

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One of the most common experiences we all have is pain.  It comes in many forms: a finger cut, an ankle sprain, a broken nose, etc...

I've broken my nose 15 times; Murphy's Law seems to like my nose.  (Wry Smile)  However, I've only broken my back once.  Perhaps it wasn't a true break, perhaps it was a nick in the spinal cord.  But once done, you never forget it...

I fell in P.E. on my chest and jaw without putting my wrists down.  Later the doctor said I would have snapped my wrist off, but they probably would have healed faster - it was a toss since that would have been four bones instead of one spinal cord injury.

Most people know what it's like to have their foot go to sleep and then live through the excruciating pain for several minutes while they stamp the blood and oxygen back into the limb. 

I was paralysed from the sternum down.  I could not move and could not feel and the school office personnel thought I was not telling the truth and simply ignored the silent tears running down my face.  I sat there for four and a half hours.  Eventually, I gained the urge to go to the bathroom.  Two women helped me "walk" there.  I clung to their shoulders and managed to move my limp legs in agony.  I screamed and cried from the pain once I got there.  It was a pain never to be forgotten.

Eventually, I got more lower body use and "walked" home.  A 15 minute walk took well over an hour.  I sat down several times and simply focused on the goal - getting there.  The pain made it hard to keep the world from going sideways.  When I made it through the door, I crashed on the family couch and did not wake up for more than 12 hours.

What's my point?

Pain means nothing.  No matter how terrifyingly real and awful it is.  No matter whether it is in our body, our mind or in our heart.  It can be survived.  It is not the end.  It is the beginning.

Bruce Lee's wife sat and helped him write his first book when his back was broken.   She wouldn't let him give up on his dreams or on living his life.  And he did survive.  It wasn't the end, it was the beginning.

Even when really stupid, immature people hurt us and we choose to hide our Heart behind a sea green veil, love doesn't die, it finds a new beginning that says, "When you grow up..."

And when those stupid, immature, people grow up, we try to find it in our hearts to forgive them.  Not because they deserve it.  Nope, but because it was the beginning we wanted in the first place.  And because they asked...

Who have you not forgiven???

Have they grown up???

Will you forgive???

These are not easy questions, but they are the right questions and they are important questions.  All life changes and all people grow up.  This fact alone gives hope...