There’s a great story in the Gospels of Jesus walking on water while his disciples are in their fishing boat. Peter asks Jesus to call him out to walk on water as well – which Jesus does. Peter steps out and walks on water when his eyes are on Jesus, but as soon as he sees the rocking waves around him, Peter starts to sink. Jesus saves him from drowning but asks him, “Why did you doubt?”
I took a step out of the boat last week when I asked you all to pray for a miracle last week, and within twenty-four hours I was hugging Mike in tears after my greatest walking feat post-injury.
At my previous appointment, Mike and I had managed a long four and a half minutes of me walking with his hands on my waist while I tried to pull them away to give my brain the necessary feedback of where my body was. This past Monday, we tried the same walk and I knocked off a whopping three minutes from my time on the first go. Clearly, according to Mike, this wasn’t difficult enough, so he told me I wasn’t allowed to touch his hands while he held on to me.
This doesn’t sound very different, but I assure you, there is a huge difference in my proprioception due to the nerve damage so walking with out having my hands touching some thing outside my body is a massive difficulty. Mike held me up to keep me from falling because of my poor balance, and we knew the time ought to go up from the minute and a half I managed with my hands on his.
Stunningly, after three runs, I managed the distance with no hands in just under one minute, and Mike let go of me entirely for the last few steps.
I was emotionally overcome because I knew in the moment that was the miracle dozens of people around the globe had been praying for the day before. I also knew this was a huge miracle for just one day of prayer and that there is still more to come.
I went back to the gym the next day and adjusted my treadmill pace and gait to practice walking significantly slower but with only one hand holding on at any time so that I can prepare for my next appointment with Mike. His goal is half the distance with me completely independent.
Next week, I’ll spend a few more days at the gym, but I’ll also have the chance to spend a few days out at Easter Camp which from what I hear is a pretty fabulous youth group experience joining churches from across the city to encourage young people to encounter Jesus. I’m not done in my healing process, so I’m still asking for more miracles. I got one last week – why not more?
Thank you so much to all who prayed for me, and I hope you’ll keep begging God for more like the persistent widow. I promise I’ll keep my eyes on Jesus as I step out on the water and trust that Jesus can “take me further that my feet could ever wander.”
