Hi, everyone! It’s Will again. I have really enjoyed these first months (almost 2 months) being part of the church and the pastoral team at Grace! We are so glad God has brought us here. Our kids just started school this week and that has been super fun.
In the moving process, I started having some pain in my left foot, did the stereotypical guy thing, and ignored it, thinking it would just resolve itself after moving was done. For a little backstory, I did break my tibia and fibula at the same time dislocating my ankle during an ill-advised rugby game during college. A group of students coordinated to pull all the fire alarms on campus at 1:30 AM at Moody Bible Institute where I attended. So why wouldn’t you play some rugby while waiting for the fire department to clear the dorms… Well, the bad idea part of it was playing in a grassy yard near a sidewalk. I will spare you the details of that, but, needless to say, I am used to some soreness in my left foot/ankle because of that injury. This new pain was worse than normal but I was busy on my feet working at Miracle Camp and was hauling boxes to a storage unit and loading trucks after hours.
Everything seemed to line up that this was a temporary pain from overdoing it until a few weeks into working in the office at church it still hadn’t gone away and had maybe gotten worse. Wearing sandals was the only thing that brought any relief. I had to admit that it was bigger than resolving itself with rest and set up a doctor’s appointment. I did a little poking around on the internet as we all do now and got a little concerned because the evidence was pointing to a Morton's Neuroma. If you have no interest in googling that in layman’s terms it is a clump of nerve cells in the foot that get aggravated and it can become a chronic pain issue. My doctor confirmed that this was the case. I was honestly hoping that I had just broken a bone, the healing process is much more definitive for that.
That leads me to why I would even share about a relatively small medical issue I am having. The issue itself is in the grand scheme of health issues is not that big of a deal. It’s not life-threatening but it is somewhat life-altering. I am sharing this to share how this is making me feel. I am honestly more discouraged about this than I should be. It is making me think diverse thoughts about things like “how much will I be able to play actively with my kids'' and “how hard will it be for me to stay healthy exercising?” It is making me feel a little down because I am feeling age creep up on me and give me unavoidable hindrances to what “I wanna do.” Now I know that some of you older than me or with much harder to manage health conditions are thinking “this guy has no idea” and you are right, I know I don’t have it bad. But this highlights one of the great benefits of having a community, having people around you that know you, and even positive peer pressure. Knowing some of you and the real health issues that some of you have to deal with keeps my pity for myself in check, if I were more isolated there is the chance that my issue leads me to think too much about myself and see it as much bigger than it is. I also have already received some good advice about how to manage this from a brother here at church that deals with the same issue. I wanted to share my little life episode with all of you hoping that if you don’t yet see the value in connecting closely with other believers that you will consider giving it a try. Part of the ministry of our Community Life Groups is for us each to have people at church that know us well, know how to encourage us when we are a little down, and share life’s ups and downs together. Building trust, sharing small things like what I did today can be the avenue to caring for people really well when something big happens.
Community Life Groups are so important because to have people that we feel free sharing not just the medical issue we are having, but how it’s making us feel usually only happens when we have people we really trust to share with. This usually only happens when we know them well and have spent significant time with them. If any of you are wondering why I am so consistently shameless in plugging Community Life Groups here at church it really is because I deeply believe that they are that valuable and worthy of every mention I can give them. Thanks for listening!
Will Regier
Pastor of Connection and Care