One More Thing I'm Learning from My Knee Rehab Part III: About the Body
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve written about how my physical therapist’s initial session with me helped me get a good perspective on what to expect.
He told me that pain is not to be avoided but is actually part of the process of recovery.
He told me that I needed to take a long-term approach to the whole matter; if I try to measure my progress day by day, I’ll get discouraged (and I have). Instead, I should think about my progress week by week.
And now, in my fifth week since the procedure, I can assert that he was right on all counts. I have experienced pain, but it is the productive pain of moving toward a long-term goal.
HOW THE BODY WORKS
But there is one more thing I’ve noticed, and it’s not anything the therapist said. It’s something Paul said.
There are a few verses in Scripture that remind me of specific moments in my life. Sometimes I’ll write a personal note in the margin of my Bible to remind me of the time that verse came to life in my experience.
The human body was one of Paul’s favorite metaphors for the church. The different parts of the body are, like the different members of a local fellowship, interdependent on one another. Different parts have different functions, and they are all valuable to the overall health of the body.
Our bodies are, as the psalmist has it, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We shiver when we are cold, as our bodies try to generate heat. When we have a cut in our skin, white blood cells rush to the site of the wound to fight infection.
Our bodies are designed to come to the aid of any part of the body that is in distress.
Over the past weeks, a sentence from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth has taken on a whole new dimension of meaning for me: “If one member suffers, all suffer together…” (1 Cor 12:26).
I’ve seen this text illustrated over the past weeks, on both a personal level and on a corporate level.
Personally, I have focused all my attention on my knee, the part of my body that is injured and in need of help. I have stayed home from work; I haven’t even gone to church (which is weird). My days consist of doing my stretches, icing my knee, and resting.
Not much else is going on in my life right now; my knee is claiming almost all my attention. Rehabbing my knee is a full-time job.
The same is true of my wife. She has not only taken up the household responsibilities I used to managed, but she is also taking care of me. That too has been a full-time job for her.
Two adults are bending all their attention to my left knee. Why? Because my knee is the part of us that is in greatest need. One part (my knee) is suffering, and the attention of the whole household has revolved around that singular joint and its recovery.
WHAT IS TRUE IN MY BODY IS ALSO TRUE IN OUR BODY
In a larger sense, we have sensed the body at Patterson Park Church rallying to our aid. Our household is experiencing this difficulty, and so many have responded so graciously!
The cards (two dozen at last count), the emails, the phone calls…
And the food! I’ve lost count of the number of people who have dropped by with food for us. Our refrigerator is perpetually stocked with delicious food brought to us by concerned friends from church. It is literally overwhelming, both in quantity and in quality!
And here is where I must again sing the praises of our deaconesses. This sort of ministry – tending to the needs of people in our congregation – is their primary focus, and they excel at it. I’ve known for a long time that they keep their ear to the ground to discover who has needs, and then they organize to meet those needs. They write cards, and they cook and deliver meals. They visit the sick and care for the hurting members of our body.
But now that we are on the receiving end of their efforts, I am beyond impressed.
To top it off, our Student Ministries pastor Joey Turner brought a crew of teens to our house this week to help with weeding and mulching, tasks I cannot help with right now.
Could we have managed this stretch of weeks without the help of our friends at PPC? Of course. But our fellowship has taken on our burdens and taken the trouble to provide us with all of this generous help, and we have sensed that we are not alone in all this. We are surrounded by a caring community of spiritual siblings.
And we have seen the body at PPC bring the Scripture to life in our lives: “When one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers.” Not a day has gone by without some communication of care and support from the body at PPC.
(Speaking now as a pastor, I must add that occasionally we do not hear of the needs in our congregation until it’s too late to help. If you have a need or are aware of someone in our body with a need, please let us know.)
Thanks so very much to everyone at PPC who has prayed for us, who has sent cards or emails, everyone who has called to check on me, everyone who has brought us food.
Thank you for your generosity and for living out the gospel for me and my family.
Paul Pyle
Discipleship Pastor