Thursday, December 11, 2008

Broken Bones and Humbled Hearts

For Ander’s birthday my roommates and I took him on a road trip to southern Utah, around St. George. It was one of the most eventful, bonding trips we have taken together. It was a blast. The first night we got there we slept in a tipi where we had a birthday cake, candles, Martinelles, and the whole enchilada for a big birthday bash. Of course we stayed up all hours of the night telling scary stories and trying to stay warm on the freezing November night.

In the morning we woke up early and Anders made a fire out of his bare hands, and went to spend the day in Zion’s National Park. It was such an amazing day filled with hours and hours of hiking mountains. We were all wearing our matching fiesta shirts, matching waterbottles, matching Utah–white skin, and matching smiles. It had been an adventurous day scaling mountains and climbing crevices. So we wanted to finish off the day with one last hike. Well, on the last 15 minutes of the last hike, I slipped down a little mudslide and broke my leg. Well, I didn’t know I’d broken it, so I tried to convince my roommates that nothing was wrong and that I could walk on it. So I did. I walked out on a broken leg. To make an already long story short, I got a surprise when the doctor told me it was broken with likely need of surgery and crutches for a while. Whoops. This is one of those comical experiences in life. At the same time, I have learned a lot, and this has been one of the most humbling experiences in my life.

Because I have never broken a bone despite my many klutzy moments, I began to think my body would never get hurt – that my bones were extra strong. So I was humbled in that way – to see that my body is a gift. When I don’t take care of my body or do careless things with it, I will harm it. That is when I find out that “I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak” (Alma 26:12).

I love this scripture. I have always loved it because of what it means spiritually to me. I know that Jesus Christ has done more for me than I can do for myself and because of that I am nothing without him. I still believe that. But my belief has been expanded to engulf physical weakness too. I know that without Christ’s creation and accuracy, my body would not be what it is today. I know that Christ formed the Earth and everything in it and that Heavenly father designed a plan for me to come to this Earth and obtain a body. I am grateful for it. More grateful than I can express. And it keeps me humble to realize my body is weak without constant gratitude for the gift it is.

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