A hard hit and when you're stronger than you know

I’m peddling along the bike pathand then I spot him to my left—an egret so close Icould almost touch him. I brake and cruise slowly to a stop. Not wanting toscare the bird, I try not to move much as I twist around to retrieve my phonefrom my pack behind me to get a shot.  Right hereis where everything went off the rails.

Because I was trying not to createa disturbance, I kept my right foot on the bike pedal. My pivot was also to myright, and you can probably guess what happened next. I lost my balance,started falling, and could not recover. I prayed as I went down into the roadthat a car was not coming. Thankfully, it wasn’t. But, splat, I hit hard on myright hip.

The last bone density test I had indicatedmy bones were on the verge of a not so good disease. That was several yearsago. So, when I hit the concrete, as I caught my breath, I wondered if I shouldhead to the urgent care for an x-ray—the last way Iwanted to spend time on this vacation. Someone stopped to help me, but by then,I was on my feet still determined to get a picture of that bird who hadn’tmoved an inch even with all the commotion. “I’m bird crazy,” I said to thefellow. Fortunately, I’d found a fellow enthusiast.

“I’ve doneexactly the same thing,” he said.

I later calleda friend in medicine, and she triaged me. Fortunately, it seemed besides beingreally sore, I was okay.

I’d been walkingaround for years thinking if I had a fall, my bones wouldn’t withstand it. But Iwas wrong. I was stronger than I knew.

In thespiritual sense, we may be concerned a hard hit will do us in as well. But in a much greater way, weare also stronger than we know.

“I can doall things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).  When Paulwrote these words, he had taken hard hits himself, but he knew that God wouldgive us strength to face whatever is before us.

“Did youlearn your lesson from this?” Jerry asked later referring to keeping both feet on the ground in this kind of situation.

I sure did.More than one.

 

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24260977-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();Beverly Varnado is the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. Her memoir, Faith in the Fashion District, from Crosslink Publishing is available wherever fine books are sold. Also consider her other books, Give My Love to the Chestnut Trees and Home to Currahee.To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.com Beverly Varnado copyright 2021