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Dominican Republic

Ouch, That Hurt!!

By August 30, 2016October 22nd, 2024One Comment

Almost
a year ago now I was trimming the hedges in our backyard with an electric
trimmer. I was being a stupid man, standing on the ledge of our picket fence
about six feet off the ground, walking along the ledge and the top of the
pickets trimming the hedge line. The next thing I knew I was lying in the
neighbor’s backyard shaking my head while stars went around and around. I
wasn’t sure what happened. I assumed I lost my balance. I got up, shook myself
off, and walked to the garage. I put the hedge trimmer up and decided that was
enough for one day. Later that evening, the index finger on my left hand began
to swell and hurt.
“Great,” I thought. “I’ve jammed my
finger.” I still didn’t think much about it.
Until the next day.  It continued
to hurt and turn blue. Then I went to the doctor. It was x-rayed and the doctor
determined no broken bones. A few more days, more pain, more swelling. Finally
a CT Scan. Still, all the tests were coming back that there was no muscle or
nerve damage. Finally, I went to see a hand specialist. In the meantime, I had
no use of that finger. After spending time with the hand specialist, he said,
“tell me what you were doing when this happened.”
I told him what happened and he looked at
me and said, “I think we need to do surgery and see what is going on.”  I don’t have to tell you that did not
excite me at all. I’m not one for doctors, medicine, surgery, or the like
unless it is absolutely necessary.
I’ll never forget me coming out of
anesthesia in the operating room, and the doctor walking over with something
lying in the palm of his hand. It looked like half the size and span of a
toothpick.
            He
smiled and said, “I think we found the culprit.”
            Apparently,
the electric trimmer had sliced off a part of the bush with such force that it
entered my hand like a bullet. There were never any puncture marks in my hand,
but the piece of wood was there, nonetheless. I’m glad the doctor asked me what
I had been doing when it happened. Everybody else had told me just to let it
heal.
“Wrap it up, it will be fine,” someone
said.
If I had not gotten that piece of wood
out, something that didn’t belong in my hand, there would have been serious
repercussions along the way.
            If
we want to see a movement of God in our world, we’ve got to start with the
right mindset. The right mindset comes from thinking the right beliefs. The
right mindset is kept by knowing what caused the wrong beliefs in the first
place. We must get the wrong beliefs out of our minds, or we will have serious
repercussions along the way. If we don’t know the history, we may be rendered
ineffective like a hand with a piece of wood stuck inside.

I’d like to know what wrong beliefs you struggle with that need to be removed. Let me know.

One Comment

  • Unknown says:

    Jack you are so right. Our world won't change until Christians get the "pieces of wood" out of their lives so we can be in right fellowship with Jesus.

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