The Blessings of a Broken Shoulder

Then on June 30^th, I went to church and was helping a friend with some packages. As I came back up the stairs, I missed the last one. The fall went into slow motion. I didn’t fight the descent. As I lay on the floor, I was dazed, and then realized I couldn’t move my right arm. I sat up slowly. I knew I had to go to the hospital and that my ‘busyness’ was halted. God had let me know.

As I sat in ER, waiting for my turn, I readjusted the church kitchen’s apron my friend fashioned that served as a sling. Then my mind began counting blessings…. I had just had my haircut, I was dressed in clean clothes, and I had received my new glasses that morning…. I laughed to myself – such superficial blessings, but there was many more.

I began praying that I would not need surgery and a week later the surgeon underscored the answer to the prayer. A major blessing!

Many blessings then painted my life with reasons to give thanks and praise the Lord as I realized the disadvantages of a broken shoulder! I could not drive, I had to sleep in a chair and wear a sling from 6 – 8 weeks, and I could not type or take notes. I could not play the keyboard, which I utterly enjoy.

I laughed when I realized that the plan I made for July the 4^th weekend could not be fulfilled and read this scripture. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

This fall and its ramifications had a purpose. God wanted me to learn something.

When I could concentrate more, I continued to read the book my cousin had suggested I buy, Champagne for the Soul (Rediscovering God’s Gift of Joy) by Mike Mason. 90 chapters, each 2 pages long, was perfect reading. Joy is a choice. Joy moves pain along. Joy is not halfhearted; completeness is one of its marks. “Ask and you will receive,” Jesus said, “and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24). Negative self-talk is a powerful enemy of joy. Instead of honesty or humility, we’re tearing ourselves down and God and others with us. “Rejoice in the Lord always~ Again I say rejoice!” Philippians 4:4. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4 (The distinguishing mark of our belief is delight.)

The next blessing was a letter from my Aunt Irene. She wrote about her mother, my Grandmother, breaking her right collar bone while at church for a session of quilting. Her Dad, Jacob Loewen, a country type doctor, taped her collar bone/shoulder. During the time that she was recovering, she learned how to sew and quilt with her left hand. As I read these words, I felt hope. I felt motivation. I knew that if my Grandmother survived and learned new skills I could, too.

Then came a cup overflowing with blessings and thanksgiving when our four children living in four different states conferred, bought a plane ticket for one of our twelve grandchildren, Jenny, who came to spend 8 ½ days with us. This gift meant so much that it brought tears of joy to my eyes. Jenny, a quiet thoughtful young lady, interested in singing, took me to the therapist, the grocery store, the pharmacy, helped me with the sling, making meals, cleaning. The gift of Jenny’s presence brought a song of joy to my heart. Jenny was an oasis of peace in my world of inactivity and pain.

Another blessing, a big blessing, is the concern of our church or faith-family. The meals, the cards, the prayers, the phone calls and taking me to the doctor and the therapist provide a covering of God-goodness over this time of recuperation. One prayer partner met Jenny at the airport, and made sure she made her flight back at the end of her visit. Another prayer partner took me to the grocery store, and will take me to the doctor for 6 weeks x-ray. She has also taken us to church twice, when I was ready to go.

The question is age old. What am I to learn? Never before have I felt that I have had misfortune or a testimony. Now I have one of joy and thanksgiving.

When someone asks how I am doing, I reply, “Healing!” For I am trusting in God that this is so. Then I read one more chapter from Champagne for the Soul. Again it points me to scripture that reminds me of how great our God is. One of my favorite activities is walking in the early morning watching the sunrise, reading the message in the clouds. Listening to the songs of the birds and watching the seasons’ flow.

One young facebooker posted, I like the sunrise better that the sunset. That thought arrested me for a moment. A sunrise promises a new day. A sunset promises rest before a new day. God creates both! Both have their purpose and both contain promises.

Mike Mason says – Joy is a presence of God that banishes loneliness. And asks the question, Are you looking for joy? Look up at the stars. They are the remnants of the original creation, fresh from the furnace of God’s thoughts. They contain, encoded in ancient luminous script the great secret at the heart of the cosmos: JOY!

Job 38:4-7 – “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! 
Who stretched a measuring line across it? 
On what were its footings set, 
or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”