I have two souvenir t-shirts now. One is almost eighteen years old, and the other is just nine weeks old. One is white and the other is red, but both were cut from my body in the back of an ambulance.
I was working on doing laundry this morning. I am returning to work this week and I am going through my things, putting together my work clothes. Tossed in the corner of the laundry room was the hospital bag that contained my work clothes from the night of my heart attack. I have seen it sitting there several times but it wasn't something that I wanted deal with just yet. So it would seem to be fate that I would open the bag this morning and that red t-shirt would be the first thing that I would see.
I had a rough night last night, my old body just doesn't want to make this easy sometimes. I was lying in bed this morning trying to decide if I was going to go to therapy or not. I have learned the value of cardiac rehabilitation therapy since my surgery; it is one thing to get repaired, it is quite another to be restored.
I have been through physical therapy before. I found it somewhat ironic when I first went to cardiac rehab that I had been in that exact building before. Eighteen years ago it was not a cardiac rehab that was located there, instead it was a physical therapy rehab. The same physical therapy that I had used to recover from my motorcycle accident. It was a weird "I have been here before" feeling when I for the second "first time" walked through those familiar doors.
I did not go to therapy this morning, unintentionally I went back to sleep. I was just too tired, but it really did leave me thinking. We often draw parallels between churches and hospitals. Like a hospital, a church should welcome the hurting and broken. The church should be a place of refuge for the sick to find healing and restoration. Just like there are certain hospitals that specialize and are better equipped to treat and cure certain types of injuries and illnesses; there are different types of churches and some specialize in certain types of ministries, but this makes them no less a church than the other would be considered less of a hospital. In most cases, hospitals that specialize are often more revered. So why is it that we often demean and criticize a church that may have special purpose, just a thought.
But it is the idea of rehab that I have been considering this morning. A hospital is a life saving place. I have been carried inside, more than once, precariously hanging between life and death; through skill and knowledge, the doctors and nurses worked to repair my injuries and heal my body. But once the doctors have repaired the damage and completed their job, the responsibility of my health is now back in my hands. The surgery may have taken a few hours and I may have spent a few days in the hospital recovering, but rehabilitation often takes weeks or months, even years. Rehabilitation therapy usually means a change of lifestyle. It requires a change in physical activity, a change in diet, changing habits, it is often slow and difficult; Rehab requires work.
We will often willingly walk into a hospital in desperation, but to repeatedly walk into rehab is a matter of the will. I have seen may people over the years walk into churches in the same way. They are dying, life is falling apart and without help they are not going to make it. But Jesus is the Great Physician and He does what only He can do. I have seen people saved, healed, completely restored in the church's emergency room that we often call the altar. What happens at the altar is real, as real as going into surgery; just like the two stents that are now in my heart, I may not be able to see them but they are there and they saved my life. At the altar we may not be able to see or even fully understand all that God has done, but you know that He has saved you and you now have a new lease on life.
Unfortunately this is also the place where many people stop.
Surgery can and often does save a life, but it will take the rehab to restore health and increase strength. Through the process of rehab one not only has the opportunity of a better life, but also increases the odds that they will never have to go through that kind of experience again. Have you ever seen someone come into church, desperate for God to help them? And God does indeed help them, their life changes and all is well for a time. But six months or a year later they are back and this time in worse shape than they were before. Critics will often say that going to that church just made them more miserable or that God had never really changed them and it was just a matter of time before things went back to the way that they were. But it would be just as ridiculous to say that going to the hospital was a mistake and that having surgery really didn't fix the problem. Like with most surgeries, the doctor will give specific instructions for what we must do next so that we will recover and remain healthy. Jesus is very much the same, you will know a genuine experience of God because it will always be accompanied by instruction. If God ever tells you to do something, or not to do something, it is always for your health.
A good hospital will always direct you to a good rehab so that you can continue to heal and ultimately live a long and healthy life. A good church will do the same, it is foolish to receive life changing prayer or help and then run out the door thinking I can always come back if something goes wrong. People will often say; "Church is good but don't get too involved, it's unhealthy to change too much. Even though the life you were living almost killed you, you're okay now, don't get carried away with it." The best churches, like the best hospitals, will always incorporate both; surgery and rehabilitation is like repentance and obedience, one goes hand in hand with the other. Don't run from a church that wants to see you grow healthy and strong through serving, because serving is God's rehab. If we are healed at the altar then it is though service that we experience our therapy. Like I said before, being repaired is not the same as being restored. Being repaired is an act of mercy, being restored is a process of discipline.
I keep the two t-shirts as a reminder.
It is hard to learn a new ability, but it is even harder to have to relearn an ability that was lost to an injury or illness. It can be tedious at times and very frustrating, but it is good to remember what brought that situation about in the first place. In the hope that there is a realization that as hard as the rehabilitation may be, it would be worse to go back and have to go through it again.
I was working on doing laundry this morning. I am returning to work this week and I am going through my things, putting together my work clothes. Tossed in the corner of the laundry room was the hospital bag that contained my work clothes from the night of my heart attack. I have seen it sitting there several times but it wasn't something that I wanted deal with just yet. So it would seem to be fate that I would open the bag this morning and that red t-shirt would be the first thing that I would see.
I had a rough night last night, my old body just doesn't want to make this easy sometimes. I was lying in bed this morning trying to decide if I was going to go to therapy or not. I have learned the value of cardiac rehabilitation therapy since my surgery; it is one thing to get repaired, it is quite another to be restored.
I have been through physical therapy before. I found it somewhat ironic when I first went to cardiac rehab that I had been in that exact building before. Eighteen years ago it was not a cardiac rehab that was located there, instead it was a physical therapy rehab. The same physical therapy that I had used to recover from my motorcycle accident. It was a weird "I have been here before" feeling when I for the second "first time" walked through those familiar doors.
I did not go to therapy this morning, unintentionally I went back to sleep. I was just too tired, but it really did leave me thinking. We often draw parallels between churches and hospitals. Like a hospital, a church should welcome the hurting and broken. The church should be a place of refuge for the sick to find healing and restoration. Just like there are certain hospitals that specialize and are better equipped to treat and cure certain types of injuries and illnesses; there are different types of churches and some specialize in certain types of ministries, but this makes them no less a church than the other would be considered less of a hospital. In most cases, hospitals that specialize are often more revered. So why is it that we often demean and criticize a church that may have special purpose, just a thought.
But it is the idea of rehab that I have been considering this morning. A hospital is a life saving place. I have been carried inside, more than once, precariously hanging between life and death; through skill and knowledge, the doctors and nurses worked to repair my injuries and heal my body. But once the doctors have repaired the damage and completed their job, the responsibility of my health is now back in my hands. The surgery may have taken a few hours and I may have spent a few days in the hospital recovering, but rehabilitation often takes weeks or months, even years. Rehabilitation therapy usually means a change of lifestyle. It requires a change in physical activity, a change in diet, changing habits, it is often slow and difficult; Rehab requires work.
We will often willingly walk into a hospital in desperation, but to repeatedly walk into rehab is a matter of the will. I have seen may people over the years walk into churches in the same way. They are dying, life is falling apart and without help they are not going to make it. But Jesus is the Great Physician and He does what only He can do. I have seen people saved, healed, completely restored in the church's emergency room that we often call the altar. What happens at the altar is real, as real as going into surgery; just like the two stents that are now in my heart, I may not be able to see them but they are there and they saved my life. At the altar we may not be able to see or even fully understand all that God has done, but you know that He has saved you and you now have a new lease on life.
Unfortunately this is also the place where many people stop.
Surgery can and often does save a life, but it will take the rehab to restore health and increase strength. Through the process of rehab one not only has the opportunity of a better life, but also increases the odds that they will never have to go through that kind of experience again. Have you ever seen someone come into church, desperate for God to help them? And God does indeed help them, their life changes and all is well for a time. But six months or a year later they are back and this time in worse shape than they were before. Critics will often say that going to that church just made them more miserable or that God had never really changed them and it was just a matter of time before things went back to the way that they were. But it would be just as ridiculous to say that going to the hospital was a mistake and that having surgery really didn't fix the problem. Like with most surgeries, the doctor will give specific instructions for what we must do next so that we will recover and remain healthy. Jesus is very much the same, you will know a genuine experience of God because it will always be accompanied by instruction. If God ever tells you to do something, or not to do something, it is always for your health.
A good hospital will always direct you to a good rehab so that you can continue to heal and ultimately live a long and healthy life. A good church will do the same, it is foolish to receive life changing prayer or help and then run out the door thinking I can always come back if something goes wrong. People will often say; "Church is good but don't get too involved, it's unhealthy to change too much. Even though the life you were living almost killed you, you're okay now, don't get carried away with it." The best churches, like the best hospitals, will always incorporate both; surgery and rehabilitation is like repentance and obedience, one goes hand in hand with the other. Don't run from a church that wants to see you grow healthy and strong through serving, because serving is God's rehab. If we are healed at the altar then it is though service that we experience our therapy. Like I said before, being repaired is not the same as being restored. Being repaired is an act of mercy, being restored is a process of discipline.
I keep the two t-shirts as a reminder.
It is hard to learn a new ability, but it is even harder to have to relearn an ability that was lost to an injury or illness. It can be tedious at times and very frustrating, but it is good to remember what brought that situation about in the first place. In the hope that there is a realization that as hard as the rehabilitation may be, it would be worse to go back and have to go through it again.
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