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Hot. Sweaty. Ready to grind.

My second day having my brand new inline skates fully equipped with a grind plate, and I thought I was a pro. It was about 7:00 pm, and I had somehow decided that I was ready to hit the rail. Being somewhat apprehensive, but even more so overconfident, I was determined to give this piece of metal they call a rail a try. I skated hesitantly up to the rail, jumped onto it, felt my grind plate gliding over the metal.but before I knew it, I felt the ground. Ok, so I fell, but it was my first try - that's expected, right? I shook that off and gave it another attempt.

Déjà vu. A repeat of my first try, but this time I heard the sound of "snap, crackle, pop" in my elbow. Thinking that I had seen too many Rice Krispies commercials I figured it was no big deal. Three hours later my mom arrived home and I let her know about my little fiasco. Being the loving mother that she is, she took me to the emergency room. After waiting 6 hours (we all know how the emergency room is) the doctor informed me with the bad news. I had broken and dislocated my elbow, and would also need surgery. "Great." I thought "looks like I wont be playing volleyball this year." Being a competitive volleyball player, knowing that I wouldn't be able to play probably hurt more than the actual break.

After surgery, I was educated with some more bad news.I would have to wait two weeks to get a hard cast, and then eight more weeks until the cast would be removed since I had such a bad and unusual break. Ten weeks with the use of only one arm defiantly has its disadvantages, but within one week I was pretty much adapted (I'm not saying it was easy, I was just used to it).

The night before I was scheduled to get my cast on, I was doubting my faith in God. I knew that He was there, and that He loved me, but I felt like I didn't have a very close relationship with Him, and that was killing me. Being the only Christian in an Atheist household was starting to take its toll. I sort of felt that God wasn't hearing my prayers, even worse, I almost felt He wasn't there. Laying awake with tears strolling down my cheeks I was faced with two options: I could either go to sleep and try to handle this on my own, or I could ask God for strength and courage to grow closer to Him. I chose option number two. I prayed to God asking Him for strength and courage, but I upped it one better. I prayed for a sign showing me how real He and His unconditional love for me (even when I am having doubts) is.

I walked into the hospital ready to get my cast and ready to face the long, miserable eight weeks ahead. I was sent to go get x-rays to see if my elbow was healing correctly, and then sent back to a doctor to have the x-rays examined. Once the doctor reviewed the x-rays he shot three ear-piercing words at me, "One more week." My jaw dropped in disbelief as I thought "You have GOT to be kidding me. One more tedious week with out the hard cast, moving the grand total up to 11 weeks of being restricted to one arm. This can't be happening!" To confirm the bad news I asked "So, one more week until I get the hard cast?" The doctor chuckled (which left me pondering why in the world he found this funny) and then responded "No, no, no...one more week until you get out of the splint and start moving your elbow, you have healed strangely, almost unbelievably, fast" Once again, my jaw dropped, but this time as a result of relief. The doctors and my parents think I am just a fast healer, but I know it is all the work of God. Did I get the sign you ask? I sure did, and it was all within one sentence from a doctor I had never even seen before.

Copyright Chase Keller
sportieace@hotmail.com