Dreams

Before I get to dreams, we have walls! Last night Mark and one of his friends took out our mow strip. That means all the concrete is out except for the slab with Mark's hand and foot prints from when he was 18 mos. old. I'm anxious to get the pile out of the backyard. Jim (our contractor) put up walls yesterday. Yeah!

So, dreams. I was reading my Wide Awake book by Erwin McManus yesterday and came across a story that grabbed and inspired me. The story was about Erwin, age 19, getting a ride to work the day after his car broke down. His aunt pulled over, rather than take the exit ramp. Erwin got out, and headed across the freeway. He saw a UPS truck coming and knew he could outrun it. He sprinted. He didn't see the Monte Carlo passing the truck on the left. He heard screeching brakes, jumped in the air to clear the car, tucked and rolled, hit the windshield and hit the asphalt. He layed there paralyzed from the waist down. The ambulance drivers argued about who would take him, as he was on the county/city line and each ambulance represented one jurisdiction. They asked him where he wanted to go and he said the cheapest hospital, so they took him to county.

In the emergency room, they x-rayed him, poked him and determined more tests were necessary. At one point he had to go to the bathroom and asked if someone could get him there. They told him, no, they couldn't move him and gave him a 'kidney-shaped thing'. He's very private and asked if everyone would give him privacy. They pulled the curtain and waited on the other side. He asked if they would leave the room, they did. After yelling for them to also shut the door, he layed there thinking "I'm not going to go in this thing." He rocked and rocked until he fell off the very high gurney onto the cold floor. He didn't feel anything from the waist down, so that was good. He dragged himself down hallways to the bathroom, and no one noticed him. He pulled himself onto the toilet and sat there. Then he realized he couldn't get up. (Here's his story from that point on).

"So I sat there for a while, and then I started pushing on the toilet, and then I stood up, and I walked out.

I never fully understood what happened that day except to realize that long before I was looking for God, he was looking out for me.

I've looked back and wondered many times, if I hadn't been so stubborn, so determined, so desperate to go to the bathroom on my own terms, how long would I have lain on that bed? Now, I'm not saying that everyone who is lying on a bed or sitting in a wheelchair could get up and walk, but I am saying this: sometimes the limitations you are willing to accept establish the boundaries of your existence.

The doctors couldn't see me getting out of that bed, and I couldn't see myself staying in that bed. You ever notice that sometimes your desire to accomplish something can pull you through? Ever notice that people who refuse to give up seem to succeed the most? Ever notice that people who expect great things seem most likely to accomplish great things? If your dreams are supposed to be bigger than your life, then your life will always be limited by the size of your dreams.

Sometimes getting up and walking is more about your head than your legs."

How inspiring is that? Limited by our heads. Yep. Dream Big! God bless you on this sunny Thursday.