Watch Your Step
/
Photo by Chris Waits
Today is Tuesday. On Tuesday mornings, I run. This morning while I was running with my partner in crime/running buddy on St. Charles, I rolled my foot on a small patch of grass on the streetcar line. I kept going because I wasn’t in any pain and I felt fine — well, you know, besides the fact that it is a million degrees in New Orleans, even at 6am — but I was fine. Or so I thought.
I did my normal morning routine and went to the office. I had a two-hour conference call this afternoon and when I stood up from my desk, I was overwhelmed with pain — it hurt to put any pressure on my foot. (It should be noted that I am a person with a high pain tolerance, but y’all, this pain was next level.) I limped to my car at the end of the day and was hopeful that the pain would be gone by the time I got to the coffee shop where I was meeting my friend. Nope. The pain had actually gotten worse — even while sitting — so there goes that optimism. Fast forward a few hours to the present and I am sitting on my couch, my foot propped up, and an ice pack and a set of crutches nearby.
My initial reaction was an intense level of aggravation and frustration. Because of this setback, I can’t run for at least a week and while a few months ago that wouldn’t have bothered me, now it does. Immensely. Within the last two weeks, my running game has improved and I was enjoying the challenge. Now I am afraid that this will push my running game down a few notches when I get back at it. Ugh. But after blaring my Linkin Park playlist (yes, my go to de-stress playlist for the last 10+ years), I realized two things:
1. When you run on St. Charles on the streetcar line there are a few things to note:
- Never run in the same direction as the streetcars. They can see you, but you can’t see them. You will cause a crazy traffic jam and ain’t nobody got time for that. Get out of the way.
- Even though you are running in the other direction, you still need to be on the lookout for when streetcars are coming your way. When they get close enough, you need to move to the side and let them pass.
- Cars. You always need to watch for cars because they don’t always see you when you are running through an intersection.
Now, it’s obvious that none of those things caused me to roll my foot. It was a random, small lump of grass that caused me to literally stumble. I mentioned that it was small, right? Well, I feel like that can relate to the sin in my life. The streetcars and cars are the “bigger” sins that I’ve overcome or that I’m more aware of. If I start to tango with a streetcar or a car, I am in serious trouble. The same goes for some of those “bigger” sins in my life, but the small thing is what tripped me up. “Small” sins are actually just as bad as those “bigger” sins, though. Those small sins are the ones that I can easily justify in my mind, for whatever reason. If we aren’t careful, we will start to feel like we don’t need to keep an eye out for those small things and they’ll cause problems in the end. Big or small, we should always be vigilant and look for the things that will cause us to stumble.
2. The culprit of my pain is compliments of my fourth metatarsal bone — whether it is a sprain or a stress fracture, whatever.
The point is this small bone is causing pain and affecting the rest of my body. Without the assistance of my crutches, trying to walk is extremely difficult and painful. When I am in pain like that, I start to spiral with my attitude — everything irritates me and I get very angry and bitter.
I feel like we can compare this to the Body of Christ. We all have our roles to play and each part is necessary. I am so excited about the life change and potential for a movement of God here in the city of New Orleans. However, it is up to us to answer the call of God to love Him and make Him known. But guys, it’s not going to happen if we aren’t working together and seeking Jesus. Now is our time as a Church to cling to Jesus and do what He says. Holding tightly to Jesus together is how we will stay unified. Let’s not be the little bone in the foot that holds the rest back. Instead, let’s remember whose we are and let’s watch Him do His thing through a hard-working, unified Body.
Jesus, may we seek you every single day. I pray that we won’t be distracted and forget to watch out for all the things — big or small. Let us always remember that our roles in the Church are important and how we carry ourselves impacts others. We love you, Jesus.