Saved To Serve Series

How many of you have ever had physical therapy? Do we have any physical therapists or physical therapy assistants here today? I’m 12 weeks into PT for my rotator cuff surgery and now know what PT stands for – pain and torture! JK. I’m actually making great progress…finally. I’ve graduated to using elastic bands and one-pound pink weights!

This week I asked my therapist what the key is to a successful rehab. She told me it’s when the therapist and patient work together. The therapist inflicts pain and torture and the patient does excruciating exercises several times a day. There’s no way I would be where I am without her outstanding work. I tried to trick her on Wednesday. When she asked me to raise my arm above my head, I decided to lift my left arm instead of the one I had surgery on. I was hoping for some praise, but she wasn’t fooled at all.

This week I called Liesl Parks to learn more about physical therapy. Liesl is a Physical Therapy Assistant and is studying to be a Physical Therapist. She shared some PT humor with me.

• Never say it’s easy because we’ll just make it hard.

• Never lose count because you’ll start at one again.

• Never scream or cry because it only encourages us.

• Never hold your breath because if you pass out, we have to fill out the paperwork.

Liesl told me her biggest challenge is to persuade patients to do their part in rehabilitation. She tells patients she can get them back to around 50% full-range motion and the rest is up to them. When I asked her how many patients actually follow an exercise regime at home, she estimates about 75%. Those who don’t exercise, end up going backwards. Those who refuse to do any therapy or exercises can end up with a frozen shoulder.

I’m a firm believer in physical therapy! I thought of some parallels between physical rehabilitation and spiritual rehabilitation.

• If we hope to grow spiritually, we must allow God to do His work in our lives, and we must do what we can do. Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We work out what God works in.

• Also, we need the help of others who will push us to do what we can’t do ourselves.

• Just as physical healing takes time, spiritual growth comes with time.

• The power of repetition and daily habits is critical. You won’t grow spiritually without practicing the disciplines of time in the Word, prayer, fellowship and evangelism.

• Pain is necessary in order to grow physically and spiritually. One slogan PT’s use is this: “Today it hurts, tomorrow it works.”

• Physical and spiritual setbacks are common. The key is to keep moving forward.

Last week we saw how the Lord saved Saul on the road to Damascus and learned that no one is too sinful to be saved. We pick up the narrative today in Acts 9:19-31 where we will discover how God saves us so we will serve Him. Would you stand as you’re able and read this with me?

“For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ And all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?’

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.