Injured

Walking across campus at the University of Tennessee one afternoon my right leg locked. Would not bend. Did not hurt; just would not work. I felt around my knee and there was bump on the back of the knee. I pushed the bump and my knee started working again. Took about four more steps and my knee locked up again. This time the bump was in the front. I pushed it and my knee started working again. I was training for a marathon at the time. I thought to myself, "I probably should not run my 14 miles this evening."

A few weeks later I was recovering from knee surgery. The doctor came in and told me that I was through running. In exercise and athletics injuries happen. You may have read about the impact of multiple concussions on NFL and NHL players. Injury happens. Paul uses athletic imagery as a metaphor for the Christian life in 2 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 9:24 - 27; and the writer of Hebrews in, 12:1 - 2. It follows that their are injuries in the Christian life as there are in sports, but there is a difference. The injuries are spiritual, not physical.

Spiritual abuse, false teaching, legalism, sin against you by a brother or sister, can cause great pain and take you out of the race for a time. As with injuries in sports, these types of injuries have to be dealt with. If a sports injury is ignored, it can become permanently disabling. That is the case as well with spiritual injury; that injury has to be treated. If not as with the sports injury the spiritual injury can become disabling, in the form of bitterness, and shipwrecked faith.

We need Doctors to treat our sports injuries. We need spiritual brothers and sisters to deal with spiritual injuries.