The Repercussions Of My Fall

Well today marks the 9 week mark from my little accident in mid July.

Lets break this down. 9 weeks = 63 days = 1512 hours = 90720 minutes.
To think I had to lay there for 15 minutes til I got someone's attention. That's nothing to all the time that has passed since!

Now if you've seen me in the past few weeks, many of you probably can't even tell that I dislocated my hip. All that is thanks to the grace of God. Ever since getting medically and physically cleared on August 31st I've been "slowly" getting back into the swing of my active lifestyle.

Yet there are many things that have come to be from my little spill. The most noticeable to me is the loss of leg muscle and flexibility. Then in the earlier weeks my movement was drastically limited but as time has progressed  movement has increased thankfully. Time has been my biggest ally at the moment since with each passing day my physical ailments lessen and my return to top form draws nearer.

However overall the physical repercussions are nothing compared to the things that affected me mentally and spiritually.

Patience. Now that is one of the major things I really struggled with during my idleness. The want to just quickly bounce back and be running around was eating away at me. However I knew for the best that I'd have to just take things slow which was just oh so awful. Yet I began to notice that my patience indeed become better with waiting, perhaps with people my patience wasn't getting better but that's a different story.

Humility. For years I've struggled with this but then with my accident God just happened to bring this all back to me. I was taken aback on how much the Lord takes care of me and how no matter what I do can I truly plan my life out. It is all thanks to Him that I'm still alive and writing this as well as healing in such a
quick fashion.

Mentally with this I've become stronger I want to say. Though at the same time I've been weakened. It'll be awhile that mental blocks will be passed, however determination and grit have become strengthened. My drive to achieve has increased and my wish to impact people in the most loving way has become another goal for me.

I began to realize that I was a living example of God's extended grace and love in how I'm here still on earth. Obviously I have a purpose to fulfill and am anxious to fulfill whatever for the Lord. I don't know what He has in store for me but I'm a prime example of a small miracle with only a dislocated hip and banged up rotator cuff.

There are probably more things that I could go on about, but the best way to probably find out about that would to just talk to me or ask. Who knows what else I'll learn from all this.
For in every situation a lesson is learned.

Depicting The Wreckage

As promised in my earlier post, here are the pictures of my bike and helmet which are in decent condition all things considering, and my cell phone which wasn't as fortunate.

My Brother's Last Youth Group Before College

So last night was my brother, Michael's, last New Life youth group before heading off to Gordon College. Little early but he's leaving to complete their mandatory outdoor education credit.

However I was able to leave the house and go. While there the worship service was something that I had missed for the past few weeks. Usually the worship is something that we all just go through the motions of, but last night to me it really hit a chord. The one song that my brother led was just what I needed to hear.

The Lord does indeed make ALL things work together for my good!

Here's the song and I hope it speaks to you as well.

What Happened July 18, 2011

Oh the fated day on which my life became that much more precious to me.

I started off that week as any other week starts: with a Monday. This Monday was no different from the ones this summer. Woke up, went to coach swim practice for two hours and then came back home to lounge and escape the heat of the day. Around 3 or 4 pm I got the urge to go for a swim but at that same moment I got a call from one of my buddies, Kyle, asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride. Seeing no harm in working out my legs, I agreed and we set out at around 5 pm. Kyle took me up towards Gambrill State Park, we trudged an awful uphill and yes though I was winded afterwards for not having gone cycling for a good while I still managed. Taking a short break, we overlooked the city of Frederick and even with the humidity it still looked beautiful. Then we took off and went towards the downhill portion of this 30 mile ride. We took a left onto Coxey Brown Road and from there began to fly. I looked down at my speedometer early on and was already at 40 mph without even pedaling. Sidenote here little did I know but I had already lost Kyle on the downhill since for once in my life on a bike ride I was not the lightest cyclist. Then suddenly I was picking up even more speed and got trapped in a wind tunnel of sorts. Safe to assume I was going 50 mph by now, therefore being "stuck" I could no longer turn very well and so when a slight right turn, all I could do was go straight. With that I went off the road into the ditch area, first few thorns and rocks weren't a problem and then lo and behold I'm in the air. I have successfully flipped my bike and am in the midst of a full flip. I landed on my left side on some rocks and thorns and it was here I dislocated my hip/femur. Lying there on the side of the road, I was for the most part "safe". My helmet was still intact but my bike yea not so much. The seat had flown off the bike with me and was right next to me in the thorns and rocks [I'll put some pictures up of the bike and what not soon enough].  I ripped my helmet off and realized that I couldn't move my left leg at all and it hurt oh so much. Seeing my dire predicament, I lay there and when hearing a car in the distance got my helmet ready to throw into the road. Unfortunately the helmet only made it to the shoulder and went unnoticed. Next I opened up my satchel on my seat of the bike, in there were two Nature Valley bars. Heard another car coming and managed to throw one bar full across the road but being so small it went unnoticed as well. With my last bar I threw at the third car and yelled at the top of my lungs. Thankfully the driver had his window down and heard me. Getting out he helped move my legs out of the thorns and flagged another car down which in turn called 911. By this time Kyle had made it back up the hill, realizing that I had to be somewhere up the hill rather than down it. I was then rushed to Frederick Memorial Hospital via ambulance and there they diagnosed me in that all I had done was dislocate my hip and not broken any bones. They then attempted to pop my hip back in and after two attempts saw that it was not possible. So they transferred to University of Maryland Shock Trauma. Here they told me the same thing that the Frederick hospital had told me. They were going to attempt one more time to pop my hip back in but if unsuccessful were going to undergo surgery on it. Going under once more (this time on hardcore drugs) they saw that they couldnt pop it in successfully and went to surgery. They cleared the blood and pieces of cartilage in the hip socket and re-put my femur into place. Well there you have the story on what went down on that fateful day.

Now reflecting I can see that God was working His amazing hand in all of this. Yes I did get injured, but thankfully I broke no bones and even more so I'm still alive! This is proof enough that He has plans for my future. He provided the support I needed from friends and family through all this. Provided the roadside assistance to help find me quickly. And right now is providing His healing hand to my injury.

I have now become living (and scarred) proof of God's grace. A miracle of sorts some would call it.

No matter what people may say now but,...

God is good... ALL the time!

Current Circumstance

If you're in contact with me right now, you know I'm in a world of hurt. 

All I ask for right now is prayer, love, and support.

If you don't know what's happened to me just inquire and I'll tell you. 

Til then thanks in advance to all of you :-)

In Passing Conversation

So tonight I was just having an amiable chat with one of my friends via texting. Where the train of thought went a little something like this. (Red = me, Blue = friend)

Stuck in traffic - That sucks, DC is pretty bad - Welp never gonna live there - Yea can't really see you moving away from home - Well unfortunately I think I may have to - Oh? - Yea no jobs in my area - But you have connections in the area - True but I need money....

Alright if you know me I tend to respond in a decently quick fashion for text messages. And so to answer my friend's message on how that they needed money, I fired back "True but money isn't everything...."

Ok insert question mark here. Here I am a college kid, who hasn't had a job for the past two summers due to taking a break after freshman year, and banking on an internship after sophomore year. And as for this summer back to coaching (which I love) after being denied by thirteen engineering internship positions. Therefore I'm making much much less than anticipated this summer and I have the quick response of how money isn't everything? Just a tad bit odd, especially after how thats one of the things I was looking forward to this summer was having some money to spend on things that I'd like and/or something for my parents.

This made me think for a bit on how the Lord has continually been working on me even though at the moment I've been in a state of neglect towards Him. Worried about what I'm doing constantly I forget the most important aspect of life. But for me to realize and then fully express my thoughts on something as money that can be a large chunk of a person's life.

Speaking of large chunk of life. Back to the flow of conversation.

Money isn't everything - But it's a large chunk - Only as large as you need it to be - Maybe, but I like money hence I work all the time.


There you have it folks. Working all the time to have money. But doesn't working all the time have its tolls on a person? If you thought no, well then you must be superhuman. Because for everyone else out there in the world working all the time taxes one's body, mind, and spirit. Bruised and battered what fun is there in life if you're so worn down. All the money in the world cannot bring a person happiness. Hm that sounds familiar huh? Oh yea a great man, no excuse me, the Son of God approximately two thousand years ago said something on those very lines. Now I may not have the same credentials as Jesus Christ nor will I ever, but I feel as though something that the Lord says is pretty darn important. 

Seems this is all going back to the revelation I had this past school year. Looks like I'm being roped back into what I started. Needless to say I've been too sure in myself and neglecting the Lord is never a good thing. 

Funny how one texting conversation brought this all up. Oh how our God works :-)

With A Heart of A Child

So something that I've been meaning to post lately has been my thoughts on interactions with young kids.

I recently returned home from being a counselor at the Crimson Wave Swim Camp at Grove City College from June 13-17. Now if you know anything about me, swimming is most definitely one of the things that define who I am. So from there I already am quite a good fit to be a counselor at a swim camp. Also I've always wanted to be a swim coach and thus this experience helped me see the drier side of swimming. Lastly it's always a joy to work with kids and as the years have gone by I've come to realize that I really do enjoy spending time and taking care of younger ones around me.

Now I'm gonna admit that I absolutely loved the time I spend there at the camp. I worked with kids ranging from 10 to 13 in age for our "Little Kids" camp and for the "Big Kids" camp the ages were 13 to 17. Decent range to counsel to but the kids overall were just great. The little kids were just so adorable and my two favorites were Luke and Jenny. These two were probably two of the youngest but they were just absolutely a pleasure to be around. Luke was just a cute redhead and his mood was just so infectious. While Jenny was just a smart little girl who was also oh so polite and knew what to do in any situation.

Then for the big kids it's always easier to communicate with those of an older age since they can actually comprehend what you're saying. For this camp I'll have to say that my favorite swimmers were Maddie, Makenna, Emily, Stephen, and Ben. Now nothing against the other campers, but it was these five that somehow piqued my interest and I attempted to get to know better as the week passed.

Overall the camp reinforced for me one of the possible ideas for the future I've been having. The past few years I've been realizing that I thoroughly enjoy working and hanging out with kids in the 13-18 age group along with some of the 13 and unders as well. I really have no qualms against any kid. Therefore I've been thinking about possibly working with kids as a potential job after college. Ideally a swim coach, but a camp counselor or PE teacher would work as well.

Not sure how this has come into my head, but I can only say that this is the Lord telling me something. Now I'm not gonna drop whatever I'm doing and just go into working with kids. To do something without a plan is pretty dumb. How I'm interpreting things here is that I should keep my options open and let the Lord just guide me to whatever job I come to in the days after my graduation in a year. Nonetheless that doesn't mean I just sit here waiting for the Lord to give me what I need, rather instead I need to be exploring all my options and be confident that where ever I go, I'll be in good hands and that all is for the glory of God.

Back to the kids though. I'm not sure what really that makes me happy to hang out and work with them. It's probable that its my inner child at work here. Or perhaps I'm just destined to be one of those older brother figures the rest of my life. I tend to find myself in the situation of fulfilling that role for others around me. But then when with high schoolers I not only do that role but also fit right in with them somehow. Weird huh?

Well my thoughts are just wandering everywhere and my apologies if I bounced around so much. I can see that I'm going here and there right now so I'm just gonna stop here. I'll probably talk about this in another post soon. Until then.

Oh here are a few pictures from the "Little Kid" camp

Rose is in pink, Jenny is in blue

And here's Luke :-)

The Comprehensive Camp kids (ages 10-13)