I Fell Off the Treadmill Yesterday
Posted by Sandy in Christian Living, Confidence in God, Experiencing God, Faith, God's Faithfulness, God's Love, God's power, God's ways, Wonders of GodI did two foolish things yesterday. And I am praising God for His awesome protection. First, I decided to run on the treadmill without wearing the safety clip. The safety clip triggers an automatic shut-off if the runner moves too far from the controls – in other words, if he or she falls off the treadmill. My second foolish act (within a period of less than five minutes) was to close my itching eyes and rub them while running.
That’s when I fell off the treadmill, which of course didn’t stop treading (or is it milling?).
Our treadmill is in a very enclosed space, so all I could think about was rolling into the small space beside the treadmill to get away from the moving belt. My knee was a bit wrenched and my foot (which I’ve broken twice) was hurting. I immediately thought of all the things I having coming up over the next few weeks and how I really didn’t want to have to do them on crutches. Then my spirit kicked in and instead of staying in the place of expecting the worst, I remembered that God is able. There has been a verifiable miraculous healing in our community recently – a woman with two broken feet was healed by the power of our miracle working God after the breaks were confirmed by x-rays taken at the ER but before her appointment with an orthopedic. There have been other incidents where it is clear that God has intervened. I remembered those incidents and I asked God to restore any damage that might have been done to my knee and foot.
Then I waited for a few minutes for the pain to subside. I began to think that if I didn’t walk a bit my muscles would stiffen up – leaving my wrenched knee wrenched. I felt like I needed to walk it out and trust that my foot would be fine. No, I didn’t have a specific word from the Lord that I should do so, but I did have a strong sense that I shouldn’t lay there (even though my husband would have found me very soon). So I very cautiously stood up and began to walk. And God, in His graciousness, either healed me or protected me from injury. Hallelujah! I’ll take either.
This evening I’m sitting here looking at the space between the end of our treadmill and the wall and I can’t explain how my foot didn’t get trapped there and then twist to the point of breaking. The other two times I broke my foot, it was a relatively minor twist that caused the break. But yesterday, God protected me. He is so good.
So today I want to publicly praise God for two things – (1) that I so quickly changed from expecting the worst to remembering God’s goodness, and (2) for His healing and protection when I fell. I have been praying about and working on not expecting bad outcomes. I serve a God who lavishes His gifts upon us and who fights my battles for me. I want to expect good outcomes when I get hit with life. Well, I got hit with life yesterday (due to my own foolishness) and I quickly moved from expecting the worst to trusting God for the best. Thank You, Lord, for continually conforming me to Your image. I’m not there yet, but I’m so glad, so thankful, that You keep me moving in the right direction. And thank You, Lord, for your tremendous, awesome power to protect us even from our own foolishness. (How did I ever think I could close and rub my eyes while running on a treadmill?) Thanks for keeping me from harm and healing all injury that occurred except the slightest soreness in my foot. I think perhaps if my foot weren’t slightly sore, I wouldn’t remember to be thankful so often today.
Friends, I hope you weren’t as foolish as me yesterday and that it didn’t take falling off the treadmill to remind you of God’s awesome goodness. Let’s praise Him in all things – because whether we’ve fallen off a treadmill recently or not – (1) He is working to conform us to the image of Christ and (2) He is protecting and healing us 24/7. What an awesome God we serve!
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