I watched a TV show last week about an amputee overcoming their anger and rediscovering purpose in their life. Other characters came alongside to encourage them, speaking hard, but beautiful truths that rattled my heart. These truths are what have carried me through tough times of disability.
“I am more than the parts of me that don’t work.”
“Don’t focus on what you can’t do; focus on what you can.”
It doesn’t matter whether you win, only that you show up.
An able-bodied person speaking to the disabled: “You’re not the only one who can hurt.”
Gold Mines.
Years ago, I started writing a story about a young man who was paralyzed but through the aid of my main character, finds hope, drive, and a sport in which he can compete: the pommel horse. That was exactly what happened in this TV show, and I realized, I had seen it before, years ago when I was twelve.
At that time, I had an abnormal gap in my weekly schedule when I was home alone. In a household of seven people, all with extra-curricular activities, this was practically a supernatural intervention. It was in these time slots that I watched reruns of this show.
It was so long ago, I didn’t quite remember the episode, but its message of courage through physical trials stuck with my subconscious for almost twenty years. Messages I desperately needed to face what life brought me.
God intentionally places and prepares every step of our journey, and with his right hand, he upholds us.
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” ~Romans 11:33
Our paths won’t be easy to tread. Oftentimes, they won’t make sense, but we can know, there is purpose in all God does, and He is with us every stumbling step.
**Highway to Heaven | S1: Ep 5-6
Gold in the Gray 