Achieving Flow | #MyFridayStory No. 316

Finding inner peace where you become One with God and the Universe starts by losing control.

A little over six months ago, on the 30th of May, I broke my femur in a road accident. I was hospitalized for over 3 weeks in a State Hospital. After surgery to repair the broken leg, I was sent home to recover. At that time in an update on my progress, I mentioned doctors saying it can take 8 to 12 months before you walk normally again. I was horrified at the prospect of hobbling and limping around for so long.

I returned to work in September, still using crutches and experiencing much pain. I began to doubt I would ever walk normally again and lamented my situation. Then I saw a lady with no legs smiling as she rolled along in her wheelchair. As if on cue, I started seeing men and women sporting a prosthetic leg. None of them were grumpy or unhappy. They walked normally, proudly showing off their mechanical appendage. As the days passed, I was determined to stay the course of my recovery and not allow the slow progress to discourage me.

When I was lying on the road next to the truck that still had my crumpled scooter stuck under its front wheel, I knew I had just escaped death. As a man of God, I felt an overwhelming presence and a sense of knowing washed over me that this was by design and for a greater purpose. Over the next weeks and months, I’ve received so much love and care from people I know to strangers, which speaks of the most humbling experience of my life. To see the outpouring of empathy and deep concern for another person’s struggles, gracefully offering material, emotional and physical support, I have been moved beyond words.

Besides the many times I doubted my recovery and thought I would be left with a limp or some other remnant of my ordeal, I kept praying for a full recovery. In November, barely six months after the surgery, I was walking unassisted and without a trace of the broken femur. Although there is still slight “pressure” where the break is, I have hardly any pain to speak of. I can feel the two entry points where the surgeons gained access to the femur—a large incision on the hip, and a small one on the knee—are still delicate. The thigh muscle where the truck struck the leg has no feeling but doctors say sensation could take up to two years to fully return.

My recovery is almost complete, and that’s before the end of 2023!

God is good.

I took a careful introspective look at the year, contemplating how it has shaped me. I went back and read the articles I’d written since the accident and watched the videos I’d recorded while in hospital and during my recovery at home. It was a rollercoaster of highs and lows but with one theme holding throughout: God is in control.

I speak of God and my relationship with Him hoping to inspire and motivate others to also want to get to know Him. Being a man of God, and a Christian at that, is not without its critics. Before my older Brother died in 2020, we considered someday losing denominations such as Christian, Muslim or Jew and having places of worship simply preach God’s love as the central message. Whatever your religion or belief, consider this snippet from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation titled “Mini Incarnations of Christ”:

“We are not God, but every single person is born out of the love of God, expresses this love in [their] unique personal form, and has the capacity to be united with God…

Hence, we must travel inward, into the interior depth of the soul where the field of divine love is expressed in the “thisness” of our own, particular life. Each of us is a little word of the Word of God, a mini-incarnation of divine love. The journey inward requires surrender to this mystery in our lives, and this means letting go of our “control buttons.” It means dying to the untethered selves that occupy us daily; it means embracing the sufferings of our lives, from the little sufferings to the big ones; it means allowing God’s grace to heal us, hold us, and empower us for life; it means entering into darkness, the unknowns of our lives, and learning to trust the darkness, for the tenderness of divine love is already there; it means being willing to surrender all that we have for all that we can become in God’s love; and finally, it means to let God’s love heal us of the opposing tensions within us. When we can say with full voice, “You are the God of my heart, my God and my portion forever” [Psalm 73:26], then we can open our eyes to see that the God I seek is already in me … and in you. We are already One.”

Achieving flow means letting go of the control buttons and trusting in God’s plan for your life. This Christmas and for 2024, my prayer and wish are for you to experience flow and closeness to God in your life.

Have a contemplative, Merry Christmas and please remember to be generous! ??

As always, thanks for reading and thank you for every thought, prayer and kind gesture you’ve sent my way! I can never say enough “thank you!”??

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